After the devastating announcement that it’s set to close its doors in the near future, Dylan Jones remembers the iconic East London boozer.
With depressing predictability, another iconic East London venue has fallen victim to sky-high rents this week; The lovely little George & Dragon on Hackney Road!
Its owner Richard Battye said: “despite 7 years remaining, a recent rent review has caused a dramatic increase in the cost of our lease and we don’t feel we can meet the payments and keep The George & Dragon as it is, so we have decided that now is the time to wrap things up.”
For those who were never lucky enough to tread its dusty boards, let me set the scene. Graphic designers, Ponystep Magazine interns and ex-Sugababe members would all frequent the little Leaky Cauldron-esque place. Above the fairy light-festooned bar was a rather moth-eaten horse’s head that was intermittently animatronic, and would occasionally terrify you (especially if you were fragile from the night before), by nodding and opening its mouth. There was also a cardboard cut-out of Elvira, Mistress of The Dark, cult horror movie icon and all-round camp nonsense, smiling benignly down at punters.
“Go on then, build your fucking luxury flats. And we’ll come and party in them instead”
I once had a date in there with a designer, who turned out to be a designer of his own demise when he said voting UKIP was probably “not a bad idea.” I got him to buy me one more gin & tonic, downed it, made an excuse and escaped to a party at a friend’s flat across the street.
Among its eclectic rotation of DJs was Siobhan Donaghy out of MKS, and Ma Butcher out of Streetfeast. She would wear a pig nose and clop around in big red sparkly heels, between playing 80’s pop hits.
I know there’s been endless dialogue on these closures, but this one’s really got me angry because I loved the place so much. You know what I think? I’m sick of it. I’m done. Go on then, build your fucking luxury flats. And we’ll come and party in them instead. And we’ll drink your Grey Goose and watch FKA Twigs music videos on your flat screen TVs. You really want a bunch of CSM students and Lady Lloyd and QX journalists spilling Tesco Value dark rum all over your white Ethan Allen sofa? Fine. But don’t come crying to us. You brought it on yourselves.
• If you weren’t lucky enough to visit the George & Dragon then it hasn’t shut yet! You can find it on 2-4 Hackney Rd, London E2 7NS. Go pay your respects.
Statement from the George & Dragon:
The rent has been increased in line with property prices on the Shoreditch side of Hackney Road, we employed an expert to battle the increase as much as possible but it’s still too much to allow us to continue without making drastic changes and we love it, people love it, the way it is. The pub forms part of a building owned by private landlords who have developed the rest of the site into a hotel. We won’t be leaving until we’ve sold the lease so it will be business as usual until a buyer comes along.
We are sad for all our customers to whom The George means such a lot and we are going to miss it unbelievably. The lease would have expired in 2022 and there is no clause for renewal so it would have reverted to the landlords eventually. We will be having our end of an era party a bit early than we hoped but it will be an absolute corker. We hope to find a new space soon.
