Comments on: So Long, The Duke Of Wellington

By: Jane Haggerty

Jane Haggerty — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 15:29:27 +0000

This for me, is very sad this pub used to belong to my Nan and grandad Humphries in the late 60’s early 70’s , my family have wonderful memories at the duke of Wellington, ?

By: Patrick O’Neill

Patrick O’Neill — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 06:17:58 +0000

Loved this place. Me and my mates would regularly have ‘Duke Days’ where we’d arrive around midday and spend the following hours chatting to the locals, playing darts and watching the footy. The atmosphere would change as the evening came and the Spaniards would come in to watch the la liga matches, the Juke box would roar into life and the garden would fill up with an eclectic crowd. Will pop in to see how it’s looking when lm next passing, but l fear it will be a short stay as what we loved about the place will have no doubt been replaced!

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 20:34:27 +0000

It’s so sad that the buildings/pubs that have lasted for centuries in East London are being bulldozed at an alarming rate because of corporate greed. The mayor of London should step in and do something. When tourists visit London they want history not souless glass monstrosities.

By: Liam O'Farrell

Liam O'Farrell — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 10:00:12 +0000

I painted a picture featuring the Wellington wholly because I heard it was closing. I then heard it was being saved.

I have only just come across this post so i guess it has gone. At least some of the original structure will be saved…. small potatoes!

By: redandblackmanthinks

redandblackmanthinks — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 17:13:50 +0000

It all started going downhill from May 1979, and has been getting worse ever since.

By: Barbara McHugh

Barbara McHugh — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 12:50:28 +0000

Yet another small part of my beloved London destroyed by greed.

By: Jonathan Madden

Jonathan Madden — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 10:01:53 +0000

Another sad victim of a changing culture and greedy developers. I did visit a couple of times when I worked nearby, I also took a photo of the superb hand lettered sign on the corner wall which replaced the old entrance.

The DNA of our ancestors is embedded in the fabric of these buildings, they have survived so many traumas including the Luftwaffe, only to be destroyed now by the developers. In the years to come we will have bitter regrets at what we’re doing to buildings like these.

Agree totally with David Milne…”their legacy swept away by corporate greed to be replaced by soulless buildings that have no respect or thought for the community and all those many people who came before us, their past lost swept away into the dust of time.”

I have documented many closed pubs in the East End as paintings and will do the same with this one, I am planning to exhibit soon. All my pictures can be found on Instagram #madden.london

A very sad tale but thanks for posting.

By: Phil Maxwell

Phil Maxwell — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 08:19:31 +0000

Terrible news and another example of how the East End is being destroyed by property developers who only care about profit. The gentrification of this area has destroyed the soul of this part of London. The Wellington featured in the classic film ‘The Crying Game’. Good luck to Vinny, Nick and all the customers. Now 75% of my favourite watering holes have gone and I’m too old to switch to overpriced micro brewery, craft beer and ‘organic’ sausage rolls that sell for £1 an inch.

By: Debra Matheney

Debra Matheney — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 18:30:49 +0000

So incredibly sad. Then conviviality of the local pub is one of Britain’s pleasures, now dying due to unmitigated greed.

By: David milne

David milne — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 16:59:59 +0000

I’ve witnessed with sadness these last weeks the sudden change within the building as it ceased to be apart of our neighbourhood as its long historic social history came to a sad and final end.
This morning I peeked inside the open door to see the interior full of workmen with their ladders removing the interior. The future for this public house is a sad one that seems to be endemic as Spitalfields becomes a former shadow of its once vibrant and historic self. The neighbourhood much loved by so many as the chain shops arrive within their horrid corporate blandness. The last surviving area of Norton Folgate still stands clinging on to its long historic past but the future of its 18th and 19th century houses and 19th century warehouses look about to be lost forever with yet more horrid buildings as aweful as the new Fruit and wool exchange it so badly and cheaply built of prefabricated brick cladding fake granite and Portland stone.
The long social history of all those who came before us making their homes and creating their own long history within the neighbourhood as everything they worked and lived their long lives for is lost forever their legacy swept away by corporate greed to be replaced by soulless buildings that have no respect or thought for the community and all those many people who came before us, their past lost swept away into the dust of time.