Locals at the back-street, town centre pub, the Royal Standard, have been sent reeling, and not by an especially strong barrel of Harvey’s, but by the news that the landlord and her team are leaving the pub under the Croydon Flyover next month.
New Standard: there’s sadness and uncertainty over the departure of the Sheldon Street pub’s team
The silver lining, at least for the local branch of CAMRA and residents in Selhurst, is that the much-admired Standard team will be working to re-open the Two Brewers on Gloucester Road.
This is an unexpected, and unexpectedly quick, reprieve for the Two Brewers, which closed in January after its owners, Kent brewers Shepherd Neame, sold the property. Locals feared the worst.
Now, the Brewers, not too far from Selhurst Park and a favourite with Eagles fans on their way to matches, or wanting to drown their sorrows after games, is to have the benefit of one of the most-admired pub management teams in the borough. As well as Winston the pub cat.
Word of the change at the Royal Standard spread quickly earlier this week.
The interior of the classic Edwardian pub is festooned with a more modern, and eclectic, collection of toy owls, as well as having its cats, and a note posted on the pub wall this week confirmed the news: “So the owls and the pussy cats are moving on,” it stated.
“You have been wonderful, so we are rather sad to leave. But we are not going far, as another back-street pub is in need of some love. So we are going to fix it.”
And the poster was accompanied by a social media note: “Very sad to say we will be leaving next month,” it said.
“It’s been emotional.”
The move might have been predicted, after Fullers, the owners, flogged the Royal Standard last summer, among a series of disposals as the Chiswick brewers exited the pub business in Croydon.
Croydon’s “hidden gem” was quickly stripped of its Fullers branding as it became the property of the very corporate Proprium Capital Partners, trading as Admiral Taverns, owners of some 1,420 pubs across the country.
The first that the management, staff and very loyal band of regulars in the pub heard about Fullers sale of the Standard was when the welcome pack from Admiral dropped on their doormat.
On their website, Proprium Capital Partners claim that Admiral is “the UK’s leading community pub group, located in Chester” and that “community is the heart and soul of our business. All our pubs benefit from hard-working, entrepreneurial licensees dedicated to making their pub the hub of their local community”.
As Inside Croydon’s culture correspondent reported around the time of the handover: “One can only hope that the Standard can thrive under the Admiral corporate umbrella.”
At first, little seemed to change. The Standard still sold London Pride and it still charged £4.80 for a pint, a minor miracle in 2025. They were even able to bring in other beers from alternative breweries.
The Royal Standard’s building is in need of maintenance and investment, and Admiral would not have been able to increase its charges to its existing tenants. Post-refurb, new tenants could be presented with increased rents.
What happens in the meantime to the Quiz Nights, the cribbage games, the occasional visits from Morris dancers and the darts teams remains uncertain.
But tomorrow’s St Patrick’s Night celebrations could prove to be a party the likes of which Sheldon Street has never seen before.
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Do women run ALL the remaining pubs in Croydon?
“Em” is moving from the Royal Standard to revive the Two Brewers, and of course (Councillor) Esther Sutton runs the Oval Tavern in Oval Rd (East Croydon) !
No Jim, they don’t.
But where they do, they seem to make a very good job of it.
There was a well respected governor with over thirty years experience running the Two Brewers until 2 months ago. Unfortunately he was totally shafted by a
Shepherd Neame who promised major refurbs and didn’t deliver…..
As a regular of the Royal Standard of nearly 20 years I’ll be sad to see Emma leave. Unlike some previous tenants she knew exactly how to manage a pub like this and made everyone very welcome. I hope the new people don’t try to change too much, the Standard is a very rare example of a traditional back street pub full of character and characters. It doesn’t need to become a facsimile of other places.