89 Regent’s Park Road: The Chalk Farm Tavern

2013 Greek Restaurant

History:

  • [SMALL INN ATTACHED TO A FARM] Lower Chalcot Farm at least 1678

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    Chalk Farm Tavern, 1830

Lower Chalcot was an ancient farm sited up a lane leading west off the main Hampstead road. It may have offered refreshments from a very early date, as it was a convenient stopping place for those journeying north-south.

 

The first definite reference to a tavern here is in 1678, when the body of a missing magistrate was carried to it.

 

  • INN Chalk House Farm 1732

 

In 1732 the first innkeeper, Joshua Deane, is listed in the Middlesex Licensing Records.

  • PUBLIC HOUSE The Chalk Farm Tavern c.1800

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    Chalk Farm Tavern, 1840

The city of London had grown northwards and Primrose Hill was a popular place to visit on weekend excursions, as well as for duels.

By 1800 the tavern had a long room for entertainment, and extensive pleasure gardens. These occupied the roughly oval area now bounded by Sharpleshall Street, Chalcot Square and Berkley Road. They contained a dance floor supposedly capable of taking a thousand people, and a high bandstand known as a Chinese Orchestra.

The original building was demolished in 1853, and the present one built by 1854. In 1860 the owners sold off the gardens for building plots, making way for more housing and the last terrace of shops to be built in Regent’s Park Road, stretching from Sharpleshall Street to Berkley Road.

  • PUBLIC HOUSE Pub Lotus 1971 (but see photo caption) -79

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    Lotus Pub. Date given on photo is 1966, so it seems the pub was open before 1971

Pub Lotus had a ‘car’ theme, with posters and photos of Lotus racing cars on the walls, steering wheel tables and leather bucket seats. There was a billiard table upstairs, and for a while the pub offered drag artists and male striptease. It had a young clientele.

  • PUBLIC HOUSE Chalk Farm Tavern 1980-85
  • IMGP3459RESTAURANT Lemonia (Greek) 1992 – present