Smallest pub with a big atmosphere faces last orders after 150 years

Published: 7 May, 2010
by PETER GRUNER

IT’S been a drinking establishment for more than 150 years and boasts the smallest bar in Islington.
The traditional Irish pub in Caledonian Road, near King’s Cross, was called The Prince of Wales up until 2005 when it was renamed The Den. Now it could be lost for ever when the building is sold at auction next week.
David Twydell, chairman of Chapel Market Traders Association, who lives nearby, is saddened by the threatened loss.
“I come here with my wife most evenings for a quick drink after work,” he said.
“There’s always a lovely friendly atmosphere. It’s a small but very friendly pub. A lot of people are going to miss it terribly.”
The pub, on the corner with Edward Square, has three floors with land at the rear which has planning consent for a two-bedroom house.

The property is being offered at auction at noon on Tuesday at the Bafta building in Piccadilly. Caledonian Labour councillor Paul Convery said he would be sorry to lose the Den.
“We’ve already lost the Mitre just round the corner,” he said. “The Den has been there as long as I can remember. It has a small bar but a very big atmosphere.”
The pub has been the location of a drinking establishment since at least 1863, according to Mark Aston, of Islington Local History Centre in Finsbury.
“From that year up until after the Second World War the establishment was a ‘beer house’ or ‘beer shop’, without a specific pub name, run by a beer retailer,” he said. A beer retailer could not sell wines or spirits.
In 1910, it was being managed by Caroline Chamberlain, a 52-year-old widow born in Wandsworth, who had previously run the Duke of Cornwall pub in Lambeth.
By 1955, it had become The Prince of Wales, a traditional pub.