Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Queen's Head Match Case
The Queen's Head was an old coaching inn, first running in the eighteenth century (and possibly earlier).
On ebay today, I noticed a match case that includes an inscription relating to the pub. So, of course, I thought I'd see what I could find out about what was inscribed.
"Whitey", Mark Pollack was licensee at Queen's Head from the 1920s at least 1948. From what I've been able to piece together, Marks or Mark was born in Vilnius, (then part of Russia), in 1880. From the names of the family members they appear to have been Jewish. They arrived in London between 1885 and 1888, probably escaping one of the Russian pogroms of the period. The family lived first in Whitechapel, then Bethnal Green.
Mark married a Julia Goldberg in 1921. A year later they were in the Queen's Head. Mark was naturalised as a British citizen in 1928.
A nice momento of Harringay's diverse history - currently £20 with no bids. If anyone buys it, please let us know!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Bruce Castle Museum contacted me to let me know that after picking it up via this post, they were going to make a bid for the item through the Friends of Bruce Castle. I contacted them after the auction had ended and Deborah replied that she could see that only one bid had been put on the item which had been there from near the beginning. So she felt that something had gone wrong with the Bruce Castle bid. I haven’t had confirmation of that yet.
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Permalink Reply by Lydia Walter on
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That’s a real shame. I was following and was going to bid and donate to the museum but when I saw a bid I thought about it and presumed I’d be bidding against you! Now wish I’d bid against the bidder.
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What a very interesting discussion. And so well spotted Hugh.
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Permalink Reply by Lesley Ramm on
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Hugh, I bought this for £20. Not in brilliant condition but a nice local memento. I wonder why Bruce Castle didn't bid?
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I think someone from the Friends-of was supposed to. Deborah said something must have gone wrong.
But great to know it's you who has it. I imagine it has a chance of finding its way into the museum's collection at some point in the future.
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Well done you ! And you have quite some history to it now as well.
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Whitey's great granddaughter has recently been in touch and she has given me the following information.
Whitey owned the pub with his brother Alec. Around that time, or maybe a bit later, the two brothers married two sisters; Julia and Bertha Goldberg (who I’m told were originally tenants of the pub)*.
The two brothers went on to buy some other pubs, including The Green Man in the City. They also at that point owned the Hackney Dog Stadium.
* I can't trace any evidence of this.
Below is a photo of the foursome.
Left to right: Whitey, his wife Julia, Alec, his wife Bertha (I'm guessing a date of 1940s)
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Incredible how some tales run and run…
Great photo and amazing that Whitey’s great granddaughter has contacted you.
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Quite amazing eh. The power of Hugh and his wonderful HoL site.
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