East Ham got a little bit of itself back on June 24 when the Boleyn Tavern reopened its doors after being closed for nearly 18 months.

Owner Remarkable Pubs has spent £1.5million restoring the Victorian landmark, recreating its original seven bars with hand-crafted wooden screens featuring acid-etched glass that follows the designs customers would have seen when the pub was first opened.

It includes the spectacular former billiards room with its vast kaleidoscopic skylight, now transformed into a dining area and theatre kitchen from where the Boleyn will serve food for the first time in recent memory.

For beer-lovers the pumps will pour ales from Hackney’s Five Points Brewery, Tottenham’s Beavertown, Fuller’s and Greene King, while the lagers will be led by Czech-brewed Litovel, exclusive to the Remarkable group.

Football memorabilia around the walls recall the days when, until 2016, West Ham United played at the Boleyn Ground just up the road.

Remarkable, which also runs the Holly Tree in Forest Gate, closed the Boleyn for refurbishment in January 2020 after buying the freehold from Greene King. Lockdown delayed the work but gave director and designer Jake Miller time to research the history of the building and capture a sense of the pub architects Shoebridge and Rising created for Cannon Brewery back in 1899.

“It was important to us to do the job properly without cutting corners,” he said. “We want to respect the history of the place. But it’s not a museum. We want it to be a real pub, with spaces where local people can get together and socialise.

“It feels great to bring a pub like the Boleyn back to life.”

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