Charlie Brown's The Railway Tavern, 116 West India Dock Road
“The one and only Charlie Brown” was known as the “Uncrowned King of Limehouse.” He had been a boxer and a sailor before taking ownership of the pub The Railway Tavern in 1893. Reading about the pub and old Charlie has been the absolute highlight of my months spent at the Archives. I remain endlessly fascinated by this legendary establishment and by Charlie Brown himself as a historical figure. The Railway Tavern was located at 116 West India Dock Road. After researching historical maps and trade directories from the 1930s, I was pleasantly surprised to pinpoint its location at the corner where Garford Street meets West India Dock Road, next to the present-day DLR track. This was further confirmed by a 1990 photograph of the site, taken by Clara Ely (P17887), shortly after the pub had been demolished. We walk past this spot almost weekly on our way from Limehouse to Canary Wharf — it lies just to the left at the point where we usually turn right, and then right again, towards Hertsmere Road and West India Quay.
At the Tower Hamlets Archives, there are some fascinating materials related to The Railway Tavern. A collection of newspaper clippings from 1928–1930 (LC10345) provides the following accounts of old Charlie and his pub:
He (Charlie Brown) is known all over the world, wherever sailors meet and he has a friend in every port. He has sailed most of the seas himself and he has gathered together the "most astounding collection of objects, beautiful and odd, under a private citizen’s roof."
Down in Limehouse, Charlie Brown is king, but that is merely by the way. You really begin to realise exactly what he means when you meet a man at the Gezeira club in Cairo or up river on a Perak rubber plantation. You mention Charlie Brown. ‘Oh! dear Old Charlie!’ ” explodes the stranger.
And about the Railway Tavern:
“Round the room sits sailors and stokers, Swedes and Germans, Italian and Poles, fireman and donkey-men, able seaman and his majesty’s guardsman - each with his girl. Some of these are English, fair of skin and rosy of cheek; some are slim and almond eyed, with all the allure of the east. All are pretty. I have never seen an ugly girl in Charlie’s. There are none in Limehouse anyway.”
“The piano plays, the hands clap, the heels drum, the smoke thickens, glasses clink, all the tongues of the world mingle, the girls laugh and the room rings back the echoes. Suddenly it is closing time.”
“Watch em” says Charlie. No one calls “time!” The bartender just lifts his finger, the pianist stops, the barmaids glance at the clock - and the sailors and soldiers and the sweating stokers, with their girls put on their hats and coat and say “Goodnight Charlie!” In 14 different languages and pass out into the night.”
In two minutes the room is clear and the potman is piling the chairs.
Limehouse may mean Chinatown, fan-tan, opium, knives, murder and mystery to the novelist, but in plain fact it is one of the most law abiding districts in London. Charlie Brown sees to that.