The end for the real East Enders?

Forget the Queen Vic, says Karen Dugdale, how will the real local pubs near London's planned Olympic site fare under the onslaught of redevelopment?

In a little under five years' time the 2012 Olympic Games will open in the capital leaving in their wake, says the London Development Agency (LDA), "great sporting facilities, more housing, jobs, skills and better transport connections".

While the spin doctors have gone into overdrive, talking up the economic benefits of regeneration, dissenters are already arguing that, rather than the promised prosperity, the legacy of the Games for east London could be the destruction of local communities through gentrification, culminating in the closure of long-standing local businesses.

So how does the traditional East End pub, part of London's cultural heritage, fit into the 2012 vision?

Standing in the green and relatively genteel surroundings of E9's Victoria Park you can't fail to notice the towering cranes, breaking up the skyline over Hackney Wick and Stratford, evidence of the scale of building work already underway in preparation for the Games.

Just a few hundred metres to the east lies Pudding Mill Lane station, situated on the Docklands Light Railway's Stratford branch between Bow Church and Stratford stations and slap-bang in the middle of the planned Olympic site - until recently, home to many small light industrial businesses.

Pudding Mill Station was never a major transport hub, but passenger activity has ground to a near standstill since road and business closures in July 2007, including Marshgate Lane, a major artery in the area. The station now has an air of abandonment, something that hasn't gone unnoticed by Mr Patel, licensee of the Lighthouse pub, situated close by on Wick Lane.

"Trade is very quiet since they closed down the roads and most of the factories and offices," he tells me, clarifying that his trade has, in fact, plummeted by around "60% or 70%" - something he hopes is only a temporary blip.

Since he took over three years ago, Patel has invested a fortune in refurbishing the traditional pub and he wants to ensure he gets his money back.

Changes in the area

Patel attributes the substantial downturn in trade to the relocation of businesses around Pudding Mill Lane - most purchased by the LDA under Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) - and is banking on it picking up once the regeneration starts to take proper shape.

"At the moment they're building flats (quite a few actually) and I think - and hope - that when they're finished the pub will be full of new residents," he says.

"I don't know if I'll get the same sort of trade as before. The council are gradually giving planning for mixed use, like commercial units with flats. If that goes through we should be OK; if not, we'll have a big problem."

Patel is all too aware of the lucrative lure of ready cash from developers that has led nine out of 39 pubs in the E3 postcode to close in the past 18 months alone - a staggering 23%.

None of these, according to a spokesperson from the LDA, has been subject to a CPO, but an insidious chipping away at the fabric of the traditional East End local seems to be occurring by way of the back door.

Despite numerous approaches from developers to cut his losses and sell up, Patel says that for the time being he's "going nowhere".

"I'm staying put for now; I'll see how it goes. We get people approaching us constantly to buy us out for flats. If the trade doesn't pick up we'll have to sell - and then you've lost another pub in the area.

"I suppose if they [developers] offer me a large enough sum of money then I'd consider it, yes, but if it's a small amount at the moment I'm not interested."

Since 2006, a 73-hectare area of brownfield railway land in east London - to the north of Stratford town centre as far as Temple Mills - has been the focus of a multi-billion-pound redevelopment scheme named Stratford City, the largest retail-led mixed-use urban regeneration project undertaken in the UK.

Although the Olympic Delivery Committee is reluctant, at this time, to confirm specifics in terms of both commercial and residential units for the area, it has outlined plans that include a flagship anchor store, John Lewis and Waitrose, and over 200 retail units, citing Stratford City's vision for the future as "a new and vibrant community, a major new urban centre, for shopping, working, relaxing and living".

The Westfield Group, a large multinational with shopping centres in Australia, New

Zealand, the United States and the UK, will be developing the Stratford City site, after recently acquiring 75% of the project.

Westfield, the world's largest retail property group by equity market capitalisation, has, since entering the US market in 1977, gained a reputation for aggressively acquiring, renovating and expanding many shopping centres and malls primarily to attract wealthier consumers from outside the immediate locality. The company is widely acknowledged to be one of the industry front-runners in incorporating large-scale entertainment and dining facilities into shopping centres.

If customers and visitors are to be lured from outside the area to a multi-million-pound shopping mall with food, drink, shopping and entertainment, all housed under one big branded corporate roof, where will that leave the smaller independent establishments providing traditional ale alongside a heartening Sunday roast?

Local interest

Like its neighbour, the Lighthouse, the Top o' the Morning, in Bow, will be paying close

attention to the redevelopment of the nearby Olympic site.

The freehouse has an infamous past intrinsically linked to an East End crime and is distinguished by a plaque on the front commemorating the event.

In 1864, Thomas Briggs was robbed and mortally wounded on a train before being unceremoniously thrown onto the track close to the pub's Cadogan Terrace location. Briggs, victim of the first recorded railway murder in the UK, was brought to the pub where he died some hours later.

Aside from its macabre affiliations the pub has much going for it in terms of its position, situated opposite east London's "green lung", Victoria Park, and adjacent to the canal.

Its well-earned reputation as a staunch local haunt is evident during my Saturday lunchtime visit, when up to a dozen regulars prop up the bar chatting and flicking through the sports pages.

The slightly shabby interior, decorated with a mishmash of objects - including a canoe suspended from the ceiling - creates a homely, albeit slightly run-down ambience; it's a welcome antidote to the homogenised and branded emporium planned just a short hop away.

This may be why manager Sean Tobin doesn't feel particularly threatened by the redevelopment.

Rather appropriately, given the establishment's upbeat moniker, Tobin remains optimistic about what the future holds.

He sees no reason why the close proximity of the new Olympic stadium should be anything but good news for the establishment he has managed for nine years.

"I think we should do well because we're not far away," he says. "Trade should go up.

I don't even think the clientele will change that much."

But is his confidence misplaced given the recent high number of pubs sold off?

"I know a few pubs have shut in the area recently, including the Hand & Flower and the Rose of Denmark.

"The Rose of Denmark was a very small pub, but I'd have kept it open because it was busier than the Hand & Flower."

In the current climate of change and uncertainty, Tobin is of the opinion that smaller pubs catering to regular clientele (the Rose of Denmark was Tobin's local before it closed) will outlive the themed generic bars and pubs that habitually seep into redeveloped areas.

The long-term legacy

The Top o' the Morning is unapologetically local. Talking to two regulars enjoying a

quiet pint outside in the pleasant autumn sunshine, it's clearly well respected and frequented in the area, something they think is unlikely to