Home > London > E14 > Magnet & Dewdrop Magnet & Dewdrop
	Picture source: Natalie Mears
The Magnet & Dewdrop was situated at 216 West Ferry Road. Present by 1878, this pub was renamed The Telegraph in 1985 when the newspaper of the same name announced that it was moving in across the road. It closed in 1995 and was demolished in 2001.
In 1972 I was working on Poplar High Street. It was a small block of flats near Poplar Town Hall. I was a hod carrier. We finished early one day and went to the Magnet and Dew Drop because they had a late license for the dockers and we would be able to drink through the afternoon. It was a small bar with a stage in one corner. We were all stood around the bar - us and about 8 dockers - when some music started playing. We looked round and a girl got on the stage and started doing a strip tease. Everyone simply turned back to drinking at the bar. I felt sorry for the girl in two ways - she was doing a horrible job and then people ignored her. Only time I ever went in there.
John Westmoreland (January 2019)
My Great Great Grandma, Elizabeth Ann Kidd was the licensee or Beer House Keeper, as it was known then. In 1871, she appears in the records of the Old Bailey as a witness to someone trying to pass counterfeit coins in her pub. She lived there with her husband, my Great Great Grandfather James Kidd, and their 9 children, as of the census of 1881. James is listed as beer seller and blacksmith, so there must have been a smithy attached to the pub. The name Magnet and Dewdrop derives from two corny Victorian puns, the Magnet to attract customers and Dew Drop as in ‘do drop inn’ In 1893 James Kidd became the licensee at another another ‘lost pub’ on the Isle Of Dogs the Prince of Wales at 2 Folly Walls, and the family all moved with him. Sadly he wasn’t there for long before dying of a brain haemorrhage, although our family oral history claims he was murdered by being struck on the head walking home one night, but it will never be known for sure. After this the family seem to have nothing to do with the public house business and all went their separate ways.
Peter Kidd (August 2023)
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Name Dates Comments Peter Avallone 1963/1968 Played with the Initials group in these years.I was the drummer, landlord was Rene. those day were great. We played Thur Fri Sat Sunday for years. wished I could go back in time.
Other Photos
Replacement building, 2015	Picture source: Colin Price