A Grade II-listed 1930s Neo-Tudor pub, saved from developers and lovingly restored – once the backdrop to a McCartney video and The Sweeney
The Old Justice on Bermondsey Wall East holds four hundred and seventy-three reviews and an outstanding 4.8 – a genuinely excellent score on a good sample – and it is one of the most heartening stories in this whole survey: a beautiful Grade II-listed 1930s pub, saved from developers and lovingly restored, a genuine gem of historic Bermondsey brought triumphantly back to life.
The outstanding score
First, the numbers – and here they are genuinely excellent: a 4.8 across four hundred and seventy-three reviews. This is an outstanding rating on a good and meaningful sample, placing the Old Justice among the very best-scoring pubs in this whole survey. It reflects a pub that is deeply and widely loved – and, given its remarkable recent history, it is a score that speaks of genuine triumph and joy: a beloved historic pub, rescued and restored, and cherished by all who are glad to have it back. It is a wonderful score, and a wonderful story behind it.
The historic gem
The Old Justice is a genuine architectural and historic gem. Built in 1933 on Bermondsey Wall East, close to the Thames, it is a beautiful example of the “Neo-Tudor” (or “brewers’ Tudor”) style – the work of Sidney C. Clark, regarded as one of the most accomplished pub architects of the inter-war period. It was built for the Hoare & Co brewery as one of the “improved” or “reformed” pubs of that era – the movement to create better, more wholesome, more beautiful pubs than the old gin-palaces of the Victorian age. It is Grade II-listed, and, remarkably, it is on CAMRA’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors, rated of Outstanding National Importance – one of only a small number of pubs in the entire country whose interior is considered a genuine historic treasure. Its two connected bar rooms retain their original oak panelling, bar counters and bar-backs, and a fine brick fireplace bearing the iconic Toby Jug insignia – a genuinely rare and complete survival of a 1930s pub interior, giving a tangible sense of how such pubs looked and worked in their heyday. It is a genuine piece of living history.
McCartney and The Sweeney
The Old Justice has a place in pop culture, too. This beautiful, characterful old pub served as the backdrop for Sir Paul McCartney’s music video for “No More Lonely Nights” – the great Beatle filming at the Old Justice, a genuine claim to fame commemorated at the pub. And it was also a filming location for the 1970s television classic “The Sweeney” – the famous, hard-edged police drama of 1970s London, which used the characterful old pub as a location. So the Old Justice has been a genuine star in its time – the beautiful old Bermondsey pub that appeared on screen with a Beatle and in one of the great TV classics of its era. It is a lovely extra layer to the story of this characterful, historic, much-loved pub. (The name itself, incidentally, refers to the old “justices of the peace” who once presided in the area.)
The rescue and restoration
But the greatest part of the Old Justice’s story is its rescue – a genuine triumph for heritage and community over destruction. In 2017, a developer sought to convert this beautiful historic pub into flats; planning permission was refused, and the pub was Grade II-listed to protect it. But the building’s owner then, shockingly, began unlawfully ripping out the pub’s precious historic interior – the panelling, the bar – without the required listed building consent. It might have been a catastrophe, the loss of a genuine national treasure. But Southwark Council intervened, took enforcement action, and compelled the developer to fund a complete restoration – reinstating the historic interior to its former glory. And in February 2023, after around five years of closure, the Old Justice reopened, under its original name, its beautiful historic interior triumphantly restored, taken on by new publicans who genuinely love pubs with big local histories. It is a wonderful story of heritage protected, destruction reversed, and a beloved historic gem brought triumphantly back to life – and the outstanding score reflects the genuine joy of its return.
Between its architectural beauty, its Outstanding-National-Importance interior, its screen fame, its moving rescue-and-restoration story, and its triumphant return, the Old Justice is one of the most heartening and remarkable pubs in this whole survey – a genuine gem, saved from destruction and restored to glory. Its outstanding score marks it as one of the finest and most beloved pubs in the entire survey. The Prat’s history desk salutes the rescue of the Old Justice, admires the restored Toby Jug on the fireplace, and raises a triumphant glass to a genuine treasure brought back to life.
The pub
An outstanding, beloved, and gloriously restored 1930s pub doing an excellent 4.8 across a good sample – a Grade II-listed Neo-Tudor gem with an Outstanding-National-Importance interior, saved from developers and reopened in 2023.
Verdict
Outstanding, historic, and triumphantly rescued – the Old Justice, a beautiful 1930s Neo-Tudor gem saved from destruction and restored to glory, one of the finest pubs in this whole survey.
Go to the Old Justice on Bermondsey Wall, and raise a triumphant glass – a Grade II-listed 1930s gem, once filmed with McCartney and in The Sweeney, saved from developers and lovingly restored to its former glory.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
