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THE THOMAS A' BECKETT: A POPULAR HAUNT FOR BOXERS, DRINKERS AND THE ODD GHOST

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6 May 2008

Left: The Thomas A'Beckett pub in 1973 

By John Prendergast 

FIVE TIMES a day boxing fans across Britain, and perhaps beyond, put on their boxing gloves and turn towards the Old Kent Road; the site of the old Thomas A’ Beckett pub.

This London mecca of British boxing is an empty–standing monument to both conflict and pilgrimage. It comes as little surprise then that this rebuilt, late-Victoria era, grand scale structure is strongly rumoured to be haunted.

Perhaps being named after such an ill-fated figure tainted the site from the very start?

Thomas Becket was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by King Henry II in 1162, but was slain in his own cathedral just eight years later on the orders of the King, who himself was on his own deathbed. After his assassination Thomas Becket became St Thomas of Becket and entered an eternity of martyrdom and sainthood.

It is back and forth to his tomb in Canterbury, Kent, that immeasurable amounts of pilgrims have travelled, some of whom stopped at a pond site known as St Thomas a watering. In fact, Chaucer in his prologue to the Canterbury Tales, thus speaks of this original watering hole:

“And forth we riden a little more than pas Unto the watering of St Thomas And there our hoste began his hors’ arest”
Presumably this pond, connected to a flowing river which now runs under the site of the pub on its way to the Thames, was the respite for travellers and their horses travelling into London from Kent. The site appears on Rocque’s 1746 Map of London and by the updated 1799 version can be seen to be in the parish of Camberwell, bordering with that of neighbouring Newington.

Until recently this very same site was still a stopping place for pilgrims, the only difference being these pilgrims were no longer Christians, but boxing fans – the crowd for which the pub is best known.

For a long time the pub packed a punch on the Old Kent Road and was the spiritual home of British boxing, playing host to a catalogue of greats from the professional world. Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Sugar Ray Leonard all sparred above the jars, in the upstairs gymnasium and ring, at some point in their career.

‘The boxer’s pub’ not only helped create champions in its training facilities, but also created the first lady of boxing, Beryl Cameron-Gibbons.

Beryl lived in the Beckett for 23 years, was landlady for sixteen years and was Europe’s only female boxing promoter. Her looks, including her golden skin and perfect features, were as fabled as that of Helen of Troy but were sadly overshadowed in the public eye by her own personal duel, whilst resident in the pub which corners with Albany Road.

Beryl had married boxer Cameron at the tender age of sixteen and lived with him upstairs in the Beckett from 1960 until his untimely death in 1970. The morning after her husband died the brewers came around to offer her the opportunity to run the pub on a nine-month trial period – a tenure that I have already mentioned ran significantly longer.

In the recent history of the site the fighting in the pub was not restricted solely to the ring. Despite seeing affluent times there has been heavyweight contest after heavyweight contest to keep the pub open as a gym and as a drinking establishment; a contest that was sadly lost in recent years. Beryl’s own struggle to keep hold of the pub perhaps captured the public’s imagination more than that of any other.

In 1983 the ‘Grand Old Lady of boxing’ refused to throw the towel in to Courage Breweries, the pub’s owner, and threatened to barricade herself in the pub if the bailiffs came to turf her out.

But of course Beryl was not the only well-known figure to be seen behind the bar at the Beckett. Henry Cooper, British, European and Commonwealth heavyweight champion in 1970, took over the reigns of the pub when it reopened to the public in June 1984 after a £150,000 six-month refurbishment.

When delving deeper into the history of this seemingly ever present watering hole, it appears there is a much more darker side to the story. According to numerous reports the sweat of men such as Ali and Sugar Ray that showered the walls of the pub were not enough to scare away any ghosts.

The ghosts of three nuns have been seen on occasions walking through corridors on the second floor. Joe Lucy, former British welterweight champion, saw the nuns and even claims to have heard them whispering. One-time landlord Arthur Ward found the disturbances so bad he could not sleep alone at the pub.

Further evidence of being built upon a tainted site is the pub’s association with Jack the Ripper. A suspect in the murders was arrested in 1888 after ‘leaving a shiny black bag at the Thomas a’ Becket public house’ containing ‘a very sharp dagger, a clasp knife, two pairs of very curious looking scissors, and two preseries.’

Today, although closed to the public and standing empty, the Thomas A’ Beckett remains one of south London’s better known landmarks and a grand reminder of its own iconic past in the midst of a brutal re-configuration of the urban environment that surrounds the former public house on the Old Kent Road today.

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Comments (3)

1. At 10:16 AM on 01 Jul 2008, Pauline Gibson wrote:
Hi There Not sure where you get you information from but Beryl moved into the pub to live with my brother Tommy Gibbons and was married to Mr Cameron long before she met Tommy. Regards Pauline Gibson
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2. At 04:56 PM on 18 Aug 2008, Helen Knell wrote:
Hi replying to message from Pauline Gibson nee Gibbons i support her statement i am her cousin and was looking up the pub and came across this site and thought this is not right.Regards Helen Knell nee Daniels
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3. At 01:40 PM on 01 Jan 2009, Kathleen Walsh (nee Lilly) wrote:
Hello. I agree with the comments of Pauline and Helen above. My mother, the daughter of Elizabeth Reil (nee Gibbons), is cousin to Tommy. We well remember Tommy as the landlord of the Thomas a Beckett - and that Beryl took over from him after his death.
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