Home > London > E17 > Plough Inn Plough Inn

Picture source: Darkstar

The Plough was situated at 173 Wood Street. This pub  was built in 1875 to replace the nearby Harrow which had been demolished in in 1873 to facilitate the building of Wood Street Station. It was a Watneys pub which became a free house in the 1990s featuring a folk club and other live music. It closed on 31/12/2010. Nothing has happened to the building yet but I understand that the new owners intend to convert it into flats.

Source: Colin Price

This long established pub was present by 1724, probably initially as the Harrow.  By 1785 it was trading as the Plough & Harrow.  This original pub was demolished in 1873 to make way for the new Wood Street Railway Station and it was rebuilt next door as the Plough in 1876.  In the early part of the twentieth century it was tied to the Huggins Brewery of Westminster, later passing to Watney’s.  The licence was revoked in 1997, leading to a brief closure, before it re-opened as Hectors.  That name did not last long and it was soon back to being the Plough.  By now a free house and mostly selling beers from the Fullers Brewery of Chiswick, it built up a reputation as a very good, local live music venue.  The pub closed following a New Year’s Eve party at the end of 2010 and is currently the subject of a vigorous local campaign for its re-opening as a pub rather than conversion to residential use.

I lived in the flats above this pub for a few months in the summer of 1995. It was the most strange time for us, we had a bedroom and that was it ! There was no usable kitchen facilities so we lived off sandwiches and melons from the local shops on Wood Street and there was no hot water for a while, luckily it was a very hot summer so we survived on cold showers. This may sound a doom and gloom story but we both have very fond memories of this period of time as we made friends with the local pub owners from various pubs on Wood Street, the months passed in a drunken, sunny haze. The landlady of the Plough at the time loved the song ' I'm In Chains ' and played it over and over and also because our bedroom was parallel with the train station, the early morning trains woke us up every morning. I am sad to hear of this closure. Such bizzare but happy memories.

Sarah Walton (August 2012)

Now converted to a convenience store.

Admin (July 2023)

Do you have any anecdotes, historical information, updates or photos of this pub? Become a contributor by submitting them here. Like this site? Follow us on

Contacts

Make email contact with other ex-customers and landlords of this pub by adding your details to this page.

Name Dates Comments Sarah Walton August 1995

Other Photos

Picture source: Hania Franek