By Nick Pollard
As I write this article, another of Shepperton’s iconic pubs has closed. It’s only a few months since I was reporting on the closure of the Bull at Shepperton Green, but now the King’s Head has gone dark, and who knows if it will reopen as a pub? In the 1970s and 80s, the Church Square on a summer evening was a buzzing hive of activity. Drinkers spilled out of the King’s Head, the Anchor, and the Rose and Crown just round the corner, to sit outside or just stand around chatting. Diners came and went from Blubeckers restaurant opposite, and no one seemed to be put off by the legendary parking chaos! All of these establishments have closed now, and the square is a much quieter place of an evening.
The King’s Head was one of the longest-established pubs in Shepperton, dating from at least 1759, when it first appeared in the Li-censing Register. The landlord then was Wil-liam King, who was later succeeded by his widow Mary. Between the two of them, they ran the pub for at least 28 years.
By 1857, the pub was in the hands of the brewers Nevile Reid & Co. of Windsor. They were taken over by Noakes and Co. in 1918, during the tenancy of Malcolm Rafferty, whose wife Elizabeth had kept the pub going whilst he was away serving with the Middle-sex Regiment in the First World War. In 1930 the pub was taken over by Courage. Oddly enough this was exactly the same sequence of brewery ownership as the Bull.
At this time the King’s Head had a large garden behind stretching down to the Creek, with its own landing stage on the river. Teas were served and wedding parties from the adjacent church catered for. This land has subsequently been built on.
In the heyday of post-war British cinema, when many films were being made at Shep-perton, the cast members and crew would often be seen having a drink or a meal at the pub, including such luminaries as Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Dot Soper was the landlady for much of this time, over 30 years before and after the Second World War.
For further details see The History of Shepperton’s Pubs by Nick and Sue Pollard.
‘The Mercenary River’ by Nick Higham, the story of London’s water supply, is the subject of the next meeting of the Sunbury and Shepperton Local History Society on Tuesday 18th April at Halliford School, starting at 8pm. All welcome, admission £2 for non-members.