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The Cock Tavern

The Cock Tavern is a public house in Somers Town, London.

The Cock Tavern, Somers Town.

History

The Cock Tavern, located on the south-west corner of Walker House, at the corner of Phoenix Road and Chalton Street, is part of The Ossulston Estate, a social housing estate built by the London County Council (LCC) in the 1920s. The Historic England heritage listing describes the The Ossulston Estate as "the most important inner-city estate of the inter-war period, representing the most considered attempt by the LCC to inject new thinking into inner-city housing estates."

The Ossulston Estate was built to the designs of the LCC Architects’ Department under chief architect G. Topham Forrest and assistants R. Minton Taylor and E.H. Parkes. The design was modelled on contemporary social housing developments in Vienna such as Karl Marx Hof and featured generous garden courtyards, a mix of apartment types that were low-rise and had no lifts. The architects also built plentiful shopping facilities into the estate, "altogether 35 lock-up shops were planned for the south side of Phoenix Street and the Chalton Street frontage and, by setting back the new housing from the Chalton Street building line, a wide pavement was provided for the stalls of a (surviving) street-market. Possibly this support for the market had some connection with the decision to incorporate two large public houses in an area already well supplied with pubs."

Prior to The Ossulston Estate development, The Cock Tavern existed on a site directly opposite its current location. This building was demolished as part of the slum clearance that preceded the building of The Ossulston Estate. The Cock Tavern has assumed several different addresses owing to the changing street names - Phoenix Road, formerly Phoenix Street; northern part of Chalton Street, formerly Clarendon Square.

William Claude Chatty is registered as the landlord from 1915 until 1938 and occupied the property throughout the various changes of address and its rebuilding in 1929 as part of the Ossulston Estate. Other landlords and employees have included, 1856 - Miss S Howland, 1869 - Thomas A Howland, 1881 - Frank Howland, age 22 (Licensed Victualler), 1881 - Elizabeth Howland, age 23 (Sister, Farmers Daughter), 1881 - William Fleet, age 24 (Barman), 1881 - William Tuck, age 20 (Barman), 1881 - William Taylor, age 25 (Barman), 1881 - William Jackson, age 16 (Potman), 1881 - Charlotte Truman, age 52 (General Domestic, Widow), 1882-1899 - Frank Howland, 1899 - Bertram William Taylor and 1910 - Ernest William Bond. 1938 - Lawrence E Bryer, 1944 - Mrs M Bryer, 1966 - Colin Wigg. Since 1999, the current publican is Sheila Gavigan (b. 1969, County Sligo, Eire). In 2012, she was awarded a ‘Team London Award’ by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, for her service to the local community.

The Cock Tavern was designated a Grade II listed building on 13 December 1996 as part of Walker House Southern Block.

The freehold of the property belongs to Flamestrike Ltd. a x-based company, who acquired it from Admiral Taverns in 2010. The pub was previously owned by Punch Taverns. Misunderstandings between the tenant and County Estates Pubs Ltd., a management company that specialises in running pubs for property developers, led to a dispute that was brought to court on 16 and 16 October 2012, that appeared to threaten the existence of the pub. Bob Crow, General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, whose offices are in Unity House in Chalton Street, released a press statement in which he stated that he wanted to, "Save the Cock Tavern from being turned into yuppie flats by some bunch of property speculators."

The building was successfully nominated as an Asset of Community Value on 02 January 2014 in recognition that the pub and the first-floor function room serve the needs of the local community groups and local organisations who use the premises for meetings and events.

In 2014, the tenant and owner of the pub resolved their differences and established a basis of co-operation. Vaughan Thomas, vice-chairman of the Save The Cock Tavern campaigning committee, commented, "It looked as if Sheila was going to be forced out. They appear to be talking positively about allowing business to carry on while redevelopment takes place." A spokesman for the owner stated: "The Cock Tavern is a neighbourhood hub and we’re delighted to help keep it going as a well-loved local."

A proposal for the conversion of part of the building to residential flats and relocation of the pub's function room was submitted on 11 March 2015 and, after community consultation and consideration by Camden Council and Historic England, withdrawn. A second application, leaving the pub and function room largely intact, was approved on 16 July 2015.

The function room to The Function Room

Normally the LCC did not build pubs on its inner estates but "eventually it was decided to permit them in small numbers but to insist upon the provision of a 'refreshment room' where non-alcoholic beverages would be served. It was this formula that was adopted for The Cock Tavern and the Somers Town Coffee House." The pub's first-floor function room was the original refreshment room and was used for birthday parties, christenings, wakes and other local social gatherings as well as meetings, community and organisation events and celebrations. Regular users of the space include the King's Cross Branch of ASLEF, Reclaim the Streets and other groups.

In 2014, the function room had become neglected and little used, Anthony Auerbach and Marlene Haring opened The Function Room as a venue for contemporary art in March that year with the first of a series of exhibitions and events. The exhibition space is open during pub hours. Artists who have taken part in solo shows or group exhibitions include Louise Ashcroft, Pascal Bircher, Anča Daučíková, Sigrid Holmwood, Stewart Home, Abigail Jones, Katrin Plavčak, Eva Stenram, Nazım Ünal Yilmaz, Alexander Brener & Barbara Schurz and the International Necronautical Society.

The Function Room is available free of charge for cultural and community events or meetings and hosts regular and occasional public events and private meetings, screenings, readings, book launches, lectures, workshops, discussion groups, union and activist meetings.

Phoenix Cultural and Community Organisation

The Phoenix Cultural and Community Organisation, established in 2015 and based at the Cock Tavern, is a new voluntary organisation dedicated to promoting cultural and community activities in Somers Town and to preserving and enhancing the venues and facilities for such activity. Following the indefatigable Father Basil Jellicoe (1899-1935), and founder of the St Pancras Housing Association, the Reverend Dr Angus Ritchie spoke of how “the work of community organising ... in the spirit of Jellicoe” is distinguished by “its commitment to valuing and listening to local people; in its invitation and its challenge to those with wealth and status and in its realism – its willingness to engage with the world as it is and not simply to dream of the world as it should be.” (Magdalen College, Oxford, 2011). The work of the PCCO follows in the spirit of Father Jellicoe and his fellow campaigner and social-reformer Edith Neville, in that it recognises the importance of the pub as a social hub and community venue. The PCCO aims to win recognition for the importance of The Cock Tavern as a cultural and community asset, network with other cultural venues, liaise with the owners and local authorities about future development and major renovations. The PCCO has established an oral history project - The Knowledge of The Cock Tavern - as it recognises that the knowledge and the history of a community such as Somers Town’s is not to be found in libraries and proposes innovative methods of recording and reflecting this unique knowledge and history. Specific aspects of the project include: the geographies of migration to and from Somers Town, the role of the pub in working class society and culture, and the history of the labour movement in Somers Town.