A PINT of beer cost just 13 pence when pub landlord Mike Mercer arrived at the Albion Inn some 40 years ago.
And the characterful publican, who was 30 at the time, has even kept the original lease showing the pub’s entire cigarette stock was worth £11.66.
The layout of the late Victorian pub is much the same today as it was then but much else has changed. Back in 1971 the alehouse was typical of its day, a place where men went to drink and chat, and dare we say it, ‘get away from the wife’.
Today it offers award-winning dishes, courtesy of Mike’s daughter and head chef, Clare Churchill, plus luxury bed and breakfast accommodation – and even women customers are welcome!
Mike, who has run the pub for the last 25 years with his wife Christina, recalled the early days: “There was no food at all, not even a batch on the bar – a packet of crisps and a packet of scratchings and that was it.
“And, of course, in those days all you had to do was open the door and the place was full in five minutes. Everybody stayed in drinking until 3pm. It was like a money-making machine.”
Mike, aged 71, also recalls the days when workers, including council staff from the nearby County Hall, drank at lunchtimes. Although he explains that plenty of business was carried out, albeit in a more informal setting than the office.
As a traditional back street pub, the Albion is a rare species these days and unique in its decor. It is famous locally for its union flags, William Morris wallpaper and First World War memorabilia.
The former merchant seaman’s patriotism and love for that historical period means he is sometimes misunderstood by outsiders, not that he’s the sort to let it bother him.
“It’s a love-hate thing. You either love the Albion or you hate it. It’s not one of those places you just wander into. I hear people walking past. One will say ‘Let’s go in the Albion’ and the other will say ‘Why not?’ ‘Because he’s a fascist right-wing pig!”
It’s true BNP leader Nick Griffin once popped in for a pint at the Albion, perhaps suspecting Mike was a kindred spirit, which he isn’t, but by the same token the Labour Party also used to hold their meetings there.
Aside from those who ‘get it wrong’, Mike, who has turned grumpy humour into an art form, says ‘an awful lot of people get it right as well’.
Among the famous faces tempted into The Albion include the Pet Shop Boys, film star James Mason, Paul Barber, who played Denzil in Only Fools and Horses, singer Tony Christie, and composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
Many love the Albion for its infamous blackboards which inform passers-by the hostelry is ‘family hostile’, does not serve meals with chips, has no gaming machines and does not allow pub crawls.
As to the pub’s enduring success, Mike explains: “I’m not trying to be smarter than the average but I look at what other pubs are doing and I do the opposite...and it works. For instance, big screen telly, you look around the town and every time a pub changes hands, if they are not doing big screen telly, they do within a few weeks.
“Not everybody wants to watch football or rugby and horse racing and we don’t have to remind ourselves how much Sky charges for big screen telly.”
Mike, a grandfather of two and father of three daughters, has no intention of calling last orders on his vocation but has so far only commemorated his milestone with close family.
He hopes regulars and friends will join in the celebrations over the course of his 40th year starting with a meal and sing-along, starring Matt Baker at the piano, on Friday, December 16 and Saturday, December 17, with part of the £25 admission charge going to the War Memorial Trust.
No doubt a glass will be raised to the many First World War veterans, now sadly deceased, who made a pilgrimage to the pub over the years.
