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The Lads Of The Village was situated on Albert Road. This was a Charringtons pub which had gone by 1980.

Source: Colin Price

The landlord Charles Robinson got the nickname ‘Charlie Crackers’ in the Blitz because during air raids he’d run down to the shelter and leave the pub with the till open as the locals carried on supping. They would help themselves to beer ( it was mainly a beer house then) and put their remittance in the till. His nickname stuck after the war until the pub closed for good– my granddad would always say to my dad ‘let’s go down Charlie Crackers’ – and the family knew where they were off to.

Mike Willson (April 2011)

The Lads of the Village was opened by my great-great grandfather John Stemp and after his death in 1872 run by his son John Nelson Stemp. He died in 1897 leaving the "beerhouse at 52 Albert Road" (as it is described in the probate records of 1898) to his wife Ellen Stemp and to Edward Hornsey, her brother. John Sr had lived in California USA returning to North Woolwich and opening the California Arms in about 1855, also on Albert Road, in which house he died.

Rick Heslop (February 2024)

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