The next SE16Hour MeetUp is happening on Thursday 27 November at 19:30 at The Angel SE16 4NB. Please let us know you are coming (or not) by using the Facebook event page here: SE16 Hour MeetUp. We will be meeting in the upper lounge which has spectacular views of the Thames and if the weather is kind, we will also be able to use the narrow viewing balcony. Please pass on the invitation to all who might be interested in getting to know other local folk – residents, workers, visitors. The more the merrier!
The Angel has stood by the river since at least the 17th century, becoming a well-known drinking haunt for local dockers and stevedores well into the last century. Situated alongside Redriffe (or Rotherhithe) Stairs where wherrymen dropped off passengers headed into the area, The Angel’s 1830 building has an unusual ‘balcony’ which once stretched around its side as well as the current river view to offer a pedestrian route to the river without entering the pub proper. It is said that J M W Turner chose to paint the nation’s favourite painting The Fighting Temeraire in 1838 from this vantage point; in fact, he reconstructed the scene in his studio, switching the direction of the setting sun from West to East and removing one of the two tugs! In 1682, we know the pub was situated diagonally opposite its current position across the filled-in moat of King Edward’s Manor House near Cathay Street. So the Angel is perhaps the oldest pub in SE16.
Once again, Andie Byrnes has already collected some great information about the pub on A Rotherhithe Blog
