The Pompadours

The Story

Opened 1959, the name chosen by public vote. The Pompadour was the nickname of a local Essex regiment — they earned it from the purple on their uniforms, that shade being the favourite colour of Madame de Pompadour. In the 1970s the pub went through seventeen managers in three years, giving Watford FC of recent years a run for their money. Local historian Don Tait recalled the time one incumbent simply walked out and left the pub open and the bar unguarded. The free bar continued for two days before the police came to lock it up. During the 1980s and 90s it acquired another nickname — The Flying Bottles — due to the fighting that occurred there, something that got considerably worse once a pool table was installed and regulars started using the cues in their arguments. It closed in March 2016. Fires in the derelict building later that year were thought to be caused by squatters. A planning application to demolish the pub and replace it with twenty-one homes was approved by Havering Council in February 2021.