Home > London > E18 > The Roundabout The Roundabout

Picture source: Colin Price

The Roundabout pub was situated by a roundabout on Southend Road, South Woodford, London E18. In 1938 it was taken over by Charlie Brown Jnr, the son of a famous East London publican Charlie Brown who had been the landlord of the Railway Tavern in Limehouse, London E14 (q.v.). The Railway Tavern was more commonly known as Charlie Brown's and was eventually renamed Charlie Brown's before being demolished in the late 1980s. Charlie Brown Jnr has previously run the Blue Posts, later known as the Buccaneer (q.v.), in London E14, also demolished in the late 1980s. Due to the fame of the Browns the Roundabout was also nicknamed Charlie Brown's. In 1972 the Roundabout had to be demolished to enable the roundabout to be enlarged to take in slip roads from the new M11 and the new enlarged roundabout is known as Charlie Browns roundabout (see photo above).

There is a video showing the demolition of The Roundabout here.

Ed Rashbrooke (October 2015)

As treasurer of the Maybank Community Association which is situated in South Woodford which incudes the site of the Roundabout public house that was demolished when the M11 motorway was built in 1977/8 over what is now known as Charlie Brown's Roundabout. The pub sign was a tall pedestal with an ornate carousel on top (see photo below) . Our association was formed at that time due to the fact that our area was split in two with the loss of our local shops and apart from an iron bridge over the central line railway and a long subway under the motorway, our residents and children were cut off from the shops and schools. Due to the fact that our association is 40 years in existence (which we feel is rather unique in this day and age), to mark the anniversary we are keen to locate the unique carousel and reinstall it on the site that is now a major roundabout. We attempted this many years ago, but the attempt went cold when we were told that the carousel had been shipped up north.

Frank Collins (January 2017)

Do you have any anecdotes, historical information, updates or photos of this pub? Become a contributor by submitting them here. Like this site? Follow us on Make email contact with other ex-customers and landlords of this pub by adding your details to this page.

Other Photos

Picture source: Frank Collins