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© Copyright Basher Eyre and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Uncle Tom's Cabin was situated at 48 Havant Road and is now part of a Baptist Church.

Named after the famous novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, this large 1950s pub, set back from the roadside, originally consisted of a public bar and a lounge. In the late 1980s owners Gales gave the house a major facelift and reinvented the pub as an open plan, single-roomed pub and eaterie. Its clientele consisted of businessmen and shoppers during the daytime and attracted a younger crowd throughout the evenings, when local bands would sometimes play and quiz nights were held. Unfortunately, the pub began to attract a small number of undesirables on a regular basis and this probably contributed to the pub's eventual closure in the late 1990s. No wonder it closed. I went in there with my mate and we had to ask for a light bulb for the dart board as "people keep on nicking them!" It's now 'the Link', Cosham Baptist Church. In the summer of 2002 Cosham Baptist Church purchased the adjacent, former Uncle Tom's Cabin public house and since that time we have been in the process of renovating the premises for church and community use. The ground floor has been converted into a non-alcoholic bar and activities area and has already been used extensively by the church for coffee mornings, mums and toddlers groups and youth activities. Around 1963 Mr & Mrs Rule who later took over the Royal Oak at Langston were Landlords.

Barry Taylor (November 2011)

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Other Photos

Picture source: Barry Taylor

Picture source: Barry Taylor