New owners of The Dog and Bull market pub have yet to submit a licensing application to stay open into the early hours every night.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Under construction: work was still going on in The Dog and Bull’s beer garden last week
Residents living in flats near Croydon’s oldest pub, The Dog and Bull on Surrey Street, have reacted with outrage at proposals for the boozer to have extended licensing hours, to 3am some mornings, as part of its “refreshed” offer under new owners Laine.
“There are too many flats in the area and it seems they have not thought about the residents here,” one neighbour of the pub told Inside Croydon.
Brighton-based Laine, part of the Punch Pubs pubco empire, have already drawn the anger of the pub’s regulars, with a name change to “The Dog” as part of a £125,000 refurbishment that has focused mostly on the beer garden – or what they have decided to call “The Wilderness”.
The refurbishment has been going on for five weeks, with what Laine has described as a “soft launch” planned for this Friday, May 9.
The revised pub’s website also suggests that they want to stay open until midnight most nights, with 2am closing on Friday nights and going on until 3am every Saturday. There’s also the possibility of using a new sound system into the wee small hours.
According to an official release from Laine, “Imagine this: incredible, bookable outdoor spaces, heated for year-round revelry, giant screens for unmissable sporting action, and a killer sound system ready to drop the freshest beats.”
“Revelry” no less.
Last orders: the pub’s new opening times, according to their website. Except this has not yet come before the council licensing committee
And they boast: “Forget dusty traditions and predictable pints! Laine, Punch Pubs’ equally awesome sister company and notorious for building boozers that pulse with individuality, is unleashing a £125,000 initial investment into this Croydon cornerstone as the first bark in a thrilling three-stage transformation.
“This isn’t just a lick of paint; it’s a full-blown ‘garden utopia’ in the making!”
Yet long-standing residents in nearby blocks of flats say that they have been told nothing about Laine’s plans.
“I had no idea what was going on about this, even though I live next to the pub,” said one local.
“I was not aware of the extended opening hours to 2am and 3am. Nobody has informed us about it.
“I always go out in other boroughs here in London, where most pubs I go to have a strict curfew for their outdoor space in residential areas, and after a certain time, everybody goes inside.”
The resident recalled how the Granaries night club nearby would keep its sound system operating only indoors later at night.
“In the summer months, I like to have our flat’s balcony door open, especially if it is hot. We might not be able to do that if there’s loud music going on outside.
“There are too many flats in the area and it seems they have not thought about the residents here.”
Cultural vandalism: an unauthorised and ugly alteration to the front of a Grade II-listed building
According to Town Hall sources, there had not been any application to the licensing committee for a change in The Dog and Bull’s opening hours.
Ria Patel, a councillor for Fairfield ward which includes Surrey Street, told Inside Croydon, “I understand wanting to revitalise the night-time economy in the town centre, but late night openings risks being disruptive to the residents who live off the alleys of Surrey Street that surround the pub.”
Last week, Laine were accused of “cultural vandalism” and “vulture capitalism” by an official of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, over their proposals for The Dog and Bull’s protected Grade II-listed frontage.
A market pub has been on the site for 750 years. Last week, the more traditional Dog and Bull pub sign hanging out across the street market was taken down, replaced by an amorphous, unrecognisable abstract of “The Dog”.
96%
said that they prefer the long-standing Dog and Bull name to the pointless and unnecessary alteration dreamt up by some business executive at Laine.
The Dog and Bull, formerly owned by Youngs, changed hands at the end of March, bought by Punch Pubs and shifted into what they call their “Laine portfolio”. The first thing they did was to close the doors and start the refurbishment, mostly of the beer garden area.
It is reckoned that there has been a pub on the site since 1276, when the medieval market was known as Butcher’s Row.
Read more: What a load of old Bull! Chain to rename Croydon’s oldest pub
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Spending a lot of money with no license, it smells a bit dodgy to me?
It has/had an existing licence, but at standard pub trading hours, not for a pub trying to me some kind of hip night club
There are STILL hip night clubs in Croydon?? No one I know of goes out to dance after 8pm in the town centre. We don’t even have daytime discos, and the council should let promoters use the abandoned Allders for that! The only nightlife I know of is the drug dealers & street gangs, the addicts & mentally ill squabbling. If you actually want to have a good night out you have to go out of town…
Lots of questions:
1. A pub on the Dog & Bull’s site since 1276?
2. Isn’t that when the Surrey Street market received its Royal Charter?
3. How many generations of market traders have drunk their profits in the Dog & Bull in the last 749 years?
4. The abject Croydon Council won’t be doing anything, but is anyone planning a three-quarters of a millennium (=750 years) celebration for the Surrey Street market next year (2026)?
God forbid someone decides to invest in the area! We should let the public go derelict and have someone demolish it for some high rise apartments. Yay NIMBYism
Punch Pubs made £21.8million profit in 2024, up from £14.4m the previous year.
Their “investment” of £125,000 in The Dog and Bull is modest, to be polite.
The investments made by dozens of the pub’s neighbours in their homes off Surrey Street nearby far outweighs the corporate spend, and deserves some respect – and certainly they are entitled to voice their concerns over unconsulted potential licence extensions.
Oh, and “Jethro”, at nope@gmail.com, we don’t usually publish comments from people too frit to put their names to their views. Any future transgressions will be deleted without publication.
Punch Pubs taking advantage of the demise of Croydon town centre, and exhibiting their profiteering prospect by saying they are doing something good for Croydon. This company obviously has no respect for neighbouring residents, I hope the licence is not granted.