So Long, Nathan’s Pies & Eels
Contributing Photographer Andrew Baker visited Nathan’s Pies & Eels in Barking Rd to record the drama of West Ham’s last home game of the season, when – as they have done every Saturday for more than forty years – fans piled in for a hearty meal before the match. Yet this was a poignant occasion because Nathan’s closed for good yesterday, shut down by excessive rent increases that have rendered this thriving business untenable.
Nathan’s was an East End cultural landmark, a community centre and a culinary destination, cherished for its delicious pies cooked freshly each day to the same recipe by generations of the Nathan family. At this moment of the passing of an era, I sat down with Richard Nathan in his beautiful sparkling pie shop to record his family’s story and celebrate their incredible achievement and service to their beloved customers in Newham through the decades.
“We opened this shop in November 1974, my great-aunt Dorrie and her husband Roy. Although he was a Minchin, they put her maiden name ‘Nathan’ on the shop. My grandparents had been in the business of pies before that, it had always been in the family. My parents Christine & David took over in 1983 and they still help out in their late seventies. Finally, I am the fourth generation.
It has always been an Eel & Pie house and we have never changed the recipes. Even though we have been through thick and thin, we have retained a high level of quality. You get a full pie full of meat without any gristle. At other places, you might cut into pie and find it full of gravy but not here!
I am the owner-proprietor which means I do everything from unblocking the toilets to making the pies. I had a good teacher, my father. From the age of five, I would be in the bakehouse standing on a chair with an apron trailing down to my feet, cutting bits of dough off the pies. So I have always helped. I worked as a Saturday boy for a number of years and when I left school at sixteen I decided to come into the business. That was thirty years ago next month. Quite some time even though I am still young.
I work ten to twelve hours a day, five days a week. It has not made me rich but it has provided a comfortable living, through sheer hard work. Everybody that works here has made Nathan’s Pie & Mash shop what it is today.
We are closing now after more than eighty years of our family in the business. There are lots of factors that have led to shutting the shop – the closure of Upton Park football ground, the imposition of strict new parking regulations so our customers cannot park, the new business rates and a threatened 100% rent increase. Rent is a hard fought battle these days. It used to be like a gentlemen’s agreement that every five years it would increase by perhaps a thousand, but all of a sudden a new regime came in. The council is the landlord but they appointed a property management company. It took me four years of court battles to bring their proposed rent of £22,000 per annum down to reasonable £14, 500, from an original rent of £11,000. Meanwhile the business rates have increased and increased. The rent and rates here are over £25,000 a year but I cannot put the prices of my pies to match these increases.
When I look back, it has been fun running this shop. On a football day, it was part of a big social routine – buying your programme, coming in here and having pie and mash, enjoying a pint at the Boleyn Tavern or the Working Men’s Club and then going round the back to the stadium. Unfortunately, all that has now gone and the eight hundred and sixty-six dwellings in the new development that replace the stadium will not be affordable for local people.”
Richard & David Nathan, piemakers
Pamela Balder, Brenda Rice and Shirley Frankland
Brenda Rice – “I started in 1976. I had just lost my daughter so I need to do something and I came to work here. I walked by one day and saw the advert. I said to my husband, ‘There’s a job going down the Boleyn,’ and he said ‘Would you like me to drive you down there in the car?’ and I have been here ever since. Some of our customers have been coming in for years and we all know each other, we are like family. Even if you wake up in the morning and don’t feel like coming in, by the time you come here and get talking to everyone you feel better.”
Shirley Frankland – “I came to work here in 1993. It is walking distance from my home and I enjoy the social life. We go out together and meet up at different places. We have already got three evenings booked ahead including the Brick Lane Music Hall. We cannot tell you what we get up to!”
Pamela Balder – “Like Shirley, I started in 1993. I had been married a little while and we bought a house when prices were sky-high so I needed to look for a job. At the time, my mum Pam worked here and she said, ‘There’s a vacancy.’ Before that, I was a Saturday girl from the age of fourteen.”
Photographs copyright © Andrew Baker
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Always the old locals who are squeezed out. Sad to read this.
Gentrification is probably behind that rent and parking issues, the old East End will soon be completely gone. Sad.
What an unfair ending for a wonderful tradition.
With a ‘Property Management’ company employed by the Council – says it all really.
All the very best to the staff at Nathan’s.
So long Nathan’s , you will be missed. So many changes in this area.
F. Cooke’s in Kingsland Road was my “local” . Loved it and still do even though I’ve moved on.
I went with some friends to their last night which was very emotional. I took a bottle of wine
with me thinking I’d be thought a right toff for doing so but the champagne corks were popping,
the press were there and I had no need to worry. I was at school with Fred and it was lovely
seeing him again and was warmly welcolmed with a huge hug. I’m planning to go down to
Broadway Market – I now live in F. Hill south of the river – but no problem on the Overground
to Dalston Junction station. That part of London has certainly changed since I lived in Burder
Road but I still like going back and remember the old days with fondness, warts an’ all !!
Great photos. This will surely be missed by the local community.
A sad day. I feel the Council are entirely to blame.
Pie an’ mash and liquor used to be an occasional childhood treat.
Is the liquor recipe still a secret?
A very sad day. I live ten minutes from the old ground and am still 10 minutes from the new one. But the move should should never have happened. The Hammers were so closely associated with the town centre . They should have regarded it as a stroke of luck still being there. Instead like many soulless businessmen they moved heir stadium into the wilderness and believe” it will be good for the club. A load of cobblers is not just an association of old bootmakers
Greetings from Boston,
GA, thanks for another human story of a family business being forced out because of changes in the economy and life styles. The premises look so pristine – great pics of the staff, happy customers, and great food.
Wishing all at Nathan’s well …
So sad to see one of the east end pie ‘ mash shops closing down
the real reason is that the old east enders have moved away and only drop by when visiting
the area for various reasons like seeing Nan and Grandad or football.
the majority of the new locals would not eat in one of the pie n ‘ mash shops.
lucky for some the pie ‘n mash shops have also moved out to other towns.
It’s the same this side of the Atlantic…..businesses pushed out of the city with high rents and high taxes, only to be replaced by venues that don’t last 5 minutes. It’s a shame that real community is lost under the conditions imposed by governments that are supposed be there for the communities they govern. However, I love reading all about London as my mother worked there at 16 for a family as a nanny ….she met all manner of people like Noel Coward for one. and she had many stories to tell us. The big house where she worked was turned into flats and could be gone now….I don’t know really.
He should now publish a cookbook. Lot’s
of money. Especially since they are well
known. People would love it. Ina Garten
said she makes more money on her
books then being on Food Network.
WHAT A PITY! I AM SO ANGRY WITH THE COUNCIL FOR CREATING UNEMPLOYMENT AND DESTROYING A LONDON INSTITUTION THAT SPREADS HAPPINESS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.
I wouldn’t eat EEL. but I’d love to try pie an’ mash it looks so good!
Hi Richard.
Sorry to read the news. A shame when cornerstone community businesses are not respected.
Baby and bathwater thinking it seems from all those with influence and control.
Wishing you all the best for the future. trust you’re smiling and whistling under all of this!! dyb dyb
Best regards
Richard
Very sad to know that Nathan’s has gone. I now live in New Zealand, but I was born and lived in Ilford until my mid-teens and attended many Hammers matches over the years, always topped off with a double pie and mash at Nathan’s. I can still taste the delicious liquor now after all these years!
Hi, does anyone have any way to contact the old owners of nathan’s? I have some photos of there which i’d like to send them if possible. If they see this or anyone could point me in the right direction please email me on hollytaylorphoto@outlook.com
Hi,
It was a great pleasure for me to visit your fantastic Pie and Mash café with Alma Bravery, who once lived in East Ham. She loved to go there frequently and was heavily involved with the scouting association. The first time that I went in with Alma, I received an extremely warm welcome; each of the staff were so friendly.
The next time I visited, I took my husband, (typical scouser; full of chat and banter, but he met his match!!!!) He loved every minute of being in there. He had the full works, plus the chilli vinegar. He also had a wonderful chat with some great West Ham supporters.
I only wish, I had visited your café, years before I did as we both thoroughly enjoyed it, thanks to Alma for introducing me to you.
We would like to wish you all the very best. Take care.
Debbie and Mike Madigan
My parents lived in Priory Rd, just around corner from the original Nathan Pie & Mash shop. In fact, our house was one of four, and West Ham’s new stadium was built on that very site. My mother worked there with Doreen, Roy and Mrs Nathan. When they went on holiday, my mother was entrusted with the shop keys, and she kept the business going with the help of Doreen’s nephew – David, who was just a young lad. Sadly my mother was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 53, and died shortly after. She had still been working in the shop up until her admittance into hospital. She was a terrible loss, not only to her family, but also to Nathan’s business.
I used to live in East Ham near Central park rd. I remember this pie and mash shop being the absolute Best in the Business❤
Many times me and my children would go there for a meal and we’ve never regretted it. We always had good service with a smile 😃 The pubs and mash..OMGOSH to die fot😊👍🏻now not all Mt children like liquor but that’s ok more for me🤣
When the shop closed, I thought they would move nearer the new football stadium but no…we are totally heart broken, starving , hungry and miserable without it!!
It’s not fair as the council have made a lit of lives more difficult. Good decrement pies are hard to find. I grew up with fish ‘n’ chips, pie ‘n’ mash with good liquor 😋 💕
Any chance of relocating and continuing this beautiful part of history..now missing sigh my hearts breaking and I know I can’t be the only one 💔 😢 😔
Whatever you do, know you are love and missed by many not just a few. Not just football fans but families eh grew up with you there and generations too.
Oh sorry I don’t want to upset anyone , I’m just reminiscing about ‘the good old days ‘
Take care everyone, Stay Safe Always❤🙏❤