6 April (Part 1) - The Lady of Charlotte
A lady who I assume comes from Crayford has emailed to say that it is premature to say the shutters are down at the Charlotte in Crayford, the To Let signs are genuine enough but it is still open for business. The writer says she passes by fairly regularly because she has a friend who lives nearby and goes on as follows…
It
never usually looks very busy to me but I’ve never been inside so could be wrong.
Last night I hurried by round about seven o’clock to drop something in on my
friend and there was a bunch of very young drinkers outside the Charlotte. They
were drinking from glasses in the street which most pubs wouldn’t allow and one
of them could hardly stand up he was so drunk.
After being out longer than I intended I passed back by around two hours later
and there was a fight in progress right outside the pub. I’m pretty sure it was
the group I’d noticed earlier, certainly the one who was completely drunk was there getting stuck in.
Someone was ejecting people from the pub and the lights went out. Quite a
commotion, around ten of them I would think, and some were urinating in the
street. I didn’t hang around long enough to see any more.
You would think a Councillor would have more sense than to allow people who are
drunk by seven in the evening to be in an even worse state a couple of hours
later. I thought publicans had some sort of duty of care, does that include just
shoving them into the street? I should have called the police but it was a bit too frightening
for standing around.
Note: I believe it may be Mr. Lucia-Hennis who is the licensee, not Councillor Geraldene
Lucia-Hennis.