Former Lewisham High Street pub converts into shop
The former Suttons Radio pub has converted into a shop some years after its closure.
Its the final nail in the coffin of hopes for another pub to open on site. Between Suttons Radio’s closure and conversion it also gained a rooftop extension.
It’s now Lewisham Foods with a pretty dull frontage.
CAMRA give a little history of the site here, with the pub under the Suttons Radio name opening in November 2017. It closed in 2020 and was up for sale at £3 million in 2022.
Suttons Radio was operated by Antic and one of many that closed in recent years. Others included the Woolwich Equitable which is now Gulmi restaurant while others were taken on by other operators such as Eltham GPO which is run by Portobello.
Pub history
Before being operated by Antic it went by The Market Tavern and Quaggy Duck. There’s a couple of nice memories of the pub in this link, with one explaining how the name Suttons Radio came about.
Antic would normally name their pubs after its prior use hence the Woolwich Equitable, Eltham GPO etc. That got them in hot bother with The Jobcentre in Deptford but I can’t say it ever bothered me (and that’s as someone who once lived in an ex-council flat in Deptford and was once a jobseeker).
That what’s the building formerly was, and while some got hot and bothered about gentrification (though they often seemed the types that would never go Deptford in a million years), the Jobcentre pub actually served some of the cheapest pints going allowing those who weren’t loaded a good pint with friends.
That pub is still going but now known as Jam Circus.
As an aside I’ll quickly add that the Iceland next door is a gorgeous building, and looks all the better for glazing being installed again back in 2022.
When the sun hits that frontage it’s sublime. A grand old High Street presence.
In the above picture taken around 2022 the former pub on the left can be seen at the original height of four floors, before the subsequent two storey extension.
Will Lewisham gain any new pubs soon? For a town with such a busy town centre and thousands of new homes it’d be expected, but it’s been expected nightlife would improve for many years and so far not a great deal has happened.
Just what Lewisham needs. Another food shop selling slaughtered chickens hanging upside down and frozen fish sticking out of plastic tubs
@May: ‘… slaughtered chickens hanging upside …’. It doesn’t hurt to remind people that chicken is not just greyish looking lumps in polystyrene trays under plastic wrap, and that fish don’t have fingers.
@C: you make valid points and I am sure the business will be a success because the patrons prefer to buy real food and not a packaged and commoditised product.
It is a shame a pub could not open o. The site. But at least the premises is back.i. use rather than standing empty and falling in to a state of disrepair.
So I wish the owners and staff of Lewisham Foods on Lewisham.High Street every success for the future.
Dull it is! Lack of imagination
I do not know any details on ownership but I wonder if it relates to an existing shop owner who is preparing for the eviction of the shops across the road and has secured their place.
its a pitty an entrepreneur did not take on this unit and convert it into something other than another food store similar to existing but that just shows the lack of vision and support from the current council preventing independent investment in the area – I noticed lately how focused local councillors are so deep into corporated investment
Lewisham town centre desperately needs some sort of manager that can enforce some sort of power over the mix of shops and the shop front designs.
Far too many garish shop fronts and cluttered designs, graffiti, fast food outlets and swarms of uber eats/deliveroo riders make the area feel horrible and unpleasant to spend time in.
If I go to shop in Lewisham (which is rare these days, just like Woolwich), i’m in and out like a special ops military operation!