South Norwood Tourist Board

Here at the South Norwood Tourist Board offices, we truly believe that the history of an area is the history of the people. We were, therefore, very excited when a gentleman called Brian Martin contacted us to purchase a print of The Portland Arms. Here is a little bit of our conversation:

“As you say, the pub was formally called Ocean’s Apart but before that it was The Prince of Denmark. It was built in 1898, my grandfather took over the licence there in 1933. My mother then took over the licence following his death in the early 40’s. My sisters were born there in 1944 and 1945 and I came along in 1953…

Mother always denied any suggestion of watering the gin and whiskey during the war! Also she was proud that, like the Windmill Theatre, it never closed during the war either!