The Ivy House in Nunhead is London’s first co-operatively owned pub, and the first in the UK to be bought by a community under the right-to-bid rules of the Localism Act 2011. When the building was sold to developers, regulars raised the money to buy the freehold themselves, completing the purchase on 15 March 2013 and reopening that summer.
The story goes back further than that. A pub called the Newlands Tavern stood here from the 1860s, and in the mid-1970s it was one of south London’s key pub-rock venues, hosting early gigs by Ian Dury, Elvis Costello, Joe Strummer and Dr Feelgood. The current building dates from 1937-38, when Truman’s Brewery had it rebuilt by its house architect A E Sewell, and it later traded as the Stuart Arms before taking its current name.
Sewell’s interiors survive almost untouched, which is why the pub is Grade II listed. The front bar has a curved counter lined with handpumps and a black-and-white tiled spittoon trough running round its base, while a double-doored partition opens into a vast rear room with a second bar and a curtained, ornamented stage. Leaded windows, wall-to-wall panelling and an open fire complete the picture, and there’s a beer garden out back.
That stage is still busy. The co-op runs a packed programme of live music, quizzes, film screenings and community events, from yoga to knitting circles.
The bar pours a rotating line-up of cask ales, often from local breweries, and the kitchen serves pizzas for most of the week, from classic margheritas to the more unusual white-base Green goddess, alongside Marmite fries, padron peppers, and a killer Sunday roast. Prices are pitched for regulars rather than tourists, and the pub was named Lambeth and Southwark District Pub of the Year by its local CAMRA branch in 2023.