The Dartmouth Arms

7, Dartmouth Rd, Forest Hill, London, SE23 3HN - Tel: 020 8488 3117

History
The Dartmouth Arms was built next to the Croydon Canal approximately on the site of what is now 9 Dartmouth Road.  The railings along the bottom of the car park mark the edge of the canal bank.  It was one of the earliest buildings on the newly enclosed common.

The enclosure was not completed until 1819, but the original Dartmouth Arms appears to have been built by 1815 when Gilbert Fownes was granted the first licence.  Dartmouth Road had only just been laid out, and was not yet named.  Incidentally, when Fownes applied for his licence he had a letter of recommendation from the Vicar of Lewisham who just happened to be the younger brother of the Earl of Dartmouth. 

In the following years a tea garden was set up by the pub for canal users.  There are no known images of the old building,  but two contemporary newspaper articles shed a little light on its history. In 1821 there was report of a burglary <see article> and in 1831 the young, pregnant body of Mary Clarke was found drowned in the canal.

 The Croydon Canal opened on 22nd October 1809 and ran from a junction with the Grand Surrey Canal near New Cross Gate to a site now occupied by West Croydon station. With 28 locks grouped into two flights, and numerous swing bridges, the canal linked the Thames to Croydon via Forest Hill, Sydenham, and Anerley. It was a financial failure, the £100 shares falling in value to just two shillings in 1830. The proprietors realised that the coming of the railways was an opportunity not to be missed, and they sold the canal for use as the course of a railway. It closed on 22nd August 1836 and was drained. Today only a few remnants can be seen.

Dartmouth Arms became the original name for Forest Hill station. It was taken from the adjoining pub, still one of the very few buildings in the area. In the mid nineteenth century Forest Hill scarcely existed as a suburb, the name being used for only a few houses in Honor Oak Road. In 1845 the station was renamed Forest Hill. The railway brought rapid growth to the area and a new bigger pub was needed to meet growing demand. Records show that the license was transferred to a new building, adjacent to the original building, in 1866.  This is clearly the date of the existing building.   A planning application from 1864 showing the layout of both buildings can be seen <here.>   It seems as though local brewing family Noakes rebuilt the Dartmouth Arms. The family lived at Brockley Hall which stood opposite The Brockley Jack in Crofton Park (also rebuilt by them in the 1890s).  Their brewery was the Black Eagle in Bermondsey. The Noakes estate of almost 300 pubs was absorbed by Courage in 1930. The building was extended in 1899 when the lounge bar, now occupied by the restaurant, was added. <see planning application here>

Incidentally, the arms shown in the inn sign are those of the city of Dartmouth, in Devon. In fact the name of the pub refers to the Earls of Dartmouth, Lords of the Manor of Lewisham and, at one time, the major landowners.  Their arms <see image here> show a shield with a stag's head on it, and are incorporated into the arms of the Borough of Lewisham.

(courtesy Steve Grindlay, Local Historian)