Though the current building dates from 1904, there has been a Fox on the site for several centuries. Palmers Green’s horse drawn buses once ran into central London from the Fox Hotel, as it once was. Geno Washington once played there. There have been theatre productions, celebrity drinkers, a ghost, a comedy club, and community cinema. And of course, it gave its name to Fox Lane.
Sue Beard, Palmers Green Jewel in the North website, 26 August 2014
The bar area in the reconfigured Fox pub is situated entirely to the right of the entrance on Green Lanes
I'm pretty sure that Foxes don't hibernate (the ones you see slinking round the streets here certainly don't), but Palmers Green's most notable example of the species Vulpes vulpes has certainly been taking a very long rest and is now showing signs of reawakening, its glistening golden coat newly reburnished. In fact, it's expected to end its torpor this very week, on Thursday 2nd February!
If you venture through the reopened front door of the Fox, you'll be greeted by a very different sight than you would have been before it closed way back in 2018(?). To the left, a new wall separating the pub from the gym which has taken over a large area that was once part of the pub. In front of you, no longer the bar counter, but instead a corridor leading to the new function room. To the right, the way into the reconfigured pub, which is rather smaller than it once was, though it now runs further back along Fox Lane, including part of the new buildings constructed on the former car park.
The Fox's golden coat has been freshly reburnished
That our Fox has not met the fate of so many other London pubs and been demolished or turned into a supermarket is to a large extent thanks to the efforts of Sue Beard. Sue's website Palmers Green Jewel in the North, which chronicles life in our particular part of the capital, has itself been hibernating for the past few years, but will hopefully reawaken once she finds some spare time.
It was Sue who first detected signs that the Fox's future was becoming uncertain, back in 2014, and it was she who did the biggest part of the research and drafting that resulted in the successful registration of the Fox as the borough's first Asset of Community Value (ACV), in June 2015.
The Fox stands in a prominent position on the corner of Green Lanes and its namesake, Fox Lane. Tall and imposing, for those coming to Palmers Green from the north, it acts as a gateway into Palmers Green’s main shopping area.
The Fox has a number of accolades. It is the oldest remaining pub in Palmers Green to have continuously stood on the same site – there has been a Fox on the site for over 300 years. It is also the only purpose built public house still remaining open on the main route between Wood Green and some way north of Winchmore Hill, the others being shop conversions with little architectural or historical merit.
The current building, of 1904, was built as part and parcel of the Edwardian development of Palmers Green. The size and grandeur of the building is a reminder that Palmers Green was once a place of enough significance to require a hotel and associated dining for travellers. Before the coming of the car, the Fox was the terminus of the horse drawn bus service into London, run by the Davey family of publicans who had stables at the back. Once the trams came, it was a major landmark on the journey from London. All taxi drivers still know the Fox.
The Fox, then, holds a position of huge cultural significance in an area, which tends to think of itself as having a short past. It is a well loved landmark and social hub. If Palmers Green were ever to lose its landmark pub, and this landmark building, it would lose part of itself.
As a former bus and train terminus, and a hotel, the Fox has always been at the centre of Palmers Green’s social and community life. June Brown, Dot Cotton from Eastenders, ran her theatre company from it, bands, including big names like Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band, have played in it, famous comedians perform in it to this day, and the famous have drunk in it – locals like Rod Stewart and Ted Ray and visitors including the famous names who trod the boards at the Intimate Theatre.
Today, as the only remaining live performance venue in central Palmers Green, the Fox host a monthly comedy night attracting top Perrier nominated comedians. It hosts a community cinema, Talkies, desperately needed now that there are no cinemas for several miles. It hosts exercise and dance classes, and until recently bands and Irish music. As the only town centre room-for-hire, it has hosted wedding receptions, christenings, parties and bar mitzvahs, giving it a special place in many local people’s personal histories.
The loss of the Fox, in its current form as a public house, would leave the community impoverished; the loss of the building itself would take something beloved and iconic for local people.
For this reason, we wish to make an application for the Fox to be recognised as an Asset of Community Value, so that, should it ever be threatened, it will be clear that this is a both building and social hub valued in the local area, and that local people might have some kind of option to intervene.
(Extract from the application to register the Fox as an Asset of Community Value submitted by Southgate District Civic Trust (now Southgate District Civic Voice) in 2015)
Besides Sue Beard, other members of the team that prepared the bid for ACV status included Jane Maggs of Southgate District Civic Trust, as it was known at the time, local historian Joe Studman, Sean Duff from the North London Circle of the Catenian Association and Mary Maguire, who until last year was a councillor in Palmers Green ward.
Being an ACV does not in itself prevent a building being converted or demolished, but it does give the local community an option to buy it if put on sale (as happened with the Antwerp Arms in Tottenham) and is an important factor to be taken into account by local planning committees. If the Fox had not been an ACV, it may well have been converted for some other use or demolished so that the whole of the site could be occupied by new-build flats, not just the former pub car park.
The role played in community life by the function room behind the old Fox pub was an important part of the evidence in favour of ACV registration. The room was used by the council for consultation events and ward forum meetings, was a venue for live music, a comedy club, parties and wedding receptions and was used by Talkies Community Cinema for its combined film screenings and social events. The old function room was ideal for these purposes, being large and acoustically isolated from the pub. The new function room, unfortunately, is much smaller and the walls will presumably let sound through, but it will nevertheless be a valuable addition to PG's facilities.
So if any reader spots Sue Beard in the Fox (or just walking past), then I think I think we all owe her a drink!
This report was updated on 3rd December to add a paragraph listing other members of the team that prepared the ACV application.
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