Damaged Goods Books

An informal yet insightful guide to some of the capital’s lost drinking dens, plus tips on where you can still get a great pint today!

Following from London’s Lost Music Venues Vol 1 & 2, author Paul Talling turns his attention to the capital’s lost drinking dens. If you enjoyed his previous books, you’ll enjoy this one too. Read about The Ruskin Arms in Manor Park where the Small Faces used to rehearse; The Star in Croydon where Jimi Hendrix, Captain Beefheart, Cream, and Fleetwood Mac all played; and Putney’s White Lion who hosted  punk and new wave bands including X-Ray Spex, Tubeway Army, Crass, Monochrome Set and The UK Subs. In addition to the many music-related anecdotes Paul broadens this book out into an alternative, sticky-carpeted history of London, viewed from the bar of some of its most iconic (and now sadly gone) drinking dens.

A well-stocked jukebox, bar snacks, and pints of Whitbread, Fuller’s, Truman’s or Courage on tap. Nothing quite matches the atmosphere of a London pub. But since 2004, one in five pubs across Greater London have closed. This book pays tribute to many of the great public drinking places we’ve lost, while also celebrating some pubs that have returned from the dead.

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Praise for Pauls other books:

‘The book is a belter. What we call in my house a Velvet Underground – a great Loo Read’ Paul Ross – BBC London

‘Talling has managed to show another side to the capital, one of abandoned buildings that somehow retain a sense of beauty.’ Metro

‘Excellent . . . As much as it is an inadvertent vision of how London might look after a catastrophe, DERELICT LONDON is valuable as a document of the one going on right in front of us.’ New Statesman