This week there are 3 events including the Hilly Fields Parkrun.CALENDAR

Circa 1898

The Brockley Jack, from old bone to stage

By Brockley Society

The Brockley Jack, from old bone to stage

The Brockley Jack on Brockley Road before the current building went up in 1898

Before Brockley was a suburb, it was a scattering of farms, and the Brockley Jack was one of its landmarks. The pub stood alongside Brockley Farm, Manor Farm and Brockley Hall as one of the few principal buildings of the old settlement, in what is now the Crofton Park end of Brockley Road.[1]

An old wooden pub

The early Brockley Jack was a picturesque wooden building.[1] It was owned by the Noakes family, brewers who lived at Brockley Hall, and it was said, with little firm evidence, to have once been a haunt of highwaymen.[1]

The pub's oddest feature was its sign. In London South of the Thames, the writer Walter Besant described a sign painted not on wood but on a large bone, which he called a mammoth's bone, dug up in the railway cutting behind the pub and nailed to the stump of an old elm in the yard.[2] Besant found the taproom and the whole building "curious".[2]

Two men holding shotguns outside the Brockley Jack billiards house around 1880
Two men with shotguns outside the Brockley Jack billiards house, around 1880. Why they were armed is not recorded.

The 1898 building

The wooden pub gave way to the building that stands today, put up in 1898 as the railway suburb filled in around it.[3] The large brick and stone pub at 410 Brockley Road became, in one description, the southern gateway to Brockley.[4]

A drawing of the old Brockley Jack in 1893, with the Noakes name, a billiards room and a sign hung on a tree
The old Brockley Jack in 1893, a few years before the wooden pub was replaced. The Noakes & Co name, the billiards room and the sign hung on the tree are all visible.

By the early 2000s the pub had lost some of its character and custom, and had drifted apart from the theatre next door. A 2008 refurbishment reworked the interior, pairing natural wood with bold wallpaper, and drew back a mixed crowd of regulars and newcomers.[4]

A theatre above the pub

In 1992, David Kincaid, Michael Bottle and Peter Rocca founded a theatre in the building.[3] Its first production paired two Chekhov short plays, On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco and Swansong, with Kincaid and Bottle in the lead roles.[3]

Now known as the Jack Studio Theatre, the venue seats fifty and is a registered charity.[3] Its programme mixes established plays with new writing, comedy and music nights, and work-in-progress "scratch" shows, alongside the Brockley Jack Film Club and the annual Write Now festival of new plays, which Lewisham Council supports.[3]

A record on the stage

The theatre has drawn steady recognition. In 1998, Mick Martin's The Life and Times of Young Bob Scallion, which premiered here, won the TAPS/BAFTA Best New Play Award.[3] Under artistic director Kate Bannister, the venue was named Most Welcoming Theatre in south-east London at the Off West End Theatre Awards in both 2013 and 2014, and Bannister and Karl Swinyard won Best Venue Directors at the 2011 Fringe Report Awards.[3]

The old wooden pub with a bone for a sign is long gone. In its place, at the southern edge of Brockley, the Brockley Jack keeps a bar and a stage under one roof.[4][3]

Sources

  1. 1.^

    Ideal Homes, History of Brockley, University of Greenwich — ideal-homes.gre.ac.uk

  2. 2.^

    Walter Besant, London South of the Thames, quoted in A brief history of the Brockley Jack, Brockley Central, 31 May 2017 — brockleycentral.blogspot.com

  3. 3.^

    Brockley Jack Theatre, Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brockley_Jack_Theatre

  4. 4.^

    The Brockley Jack, Brockley Road, Brockley Central, 19 May 2008 — brockleycentral.blogspot.com