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Picture source: Stephen Harris

The Mackworth Arms was situated at 156-158 Commercial Lane. This pub was present by 1817.  By the twentieth century it was a Watney’s Brewery house, known in the 1920s, during the time of landlord Nathan Dubosky, as the ‘Latke House’ after the plentiful supply of Jewish snacks that were apparently available to customers.  By 1977 it had become a Free House, but it closed in around 1985.  Some old Watney’s signage can still be seen on the upper floors of what is now a clothes shop.

I have lived in the area for several years and sometimes used to pass this former pub, which is now a garment trade wholesaler, and see, from the pavement, a large, victorian, richly, colourfully glazed tiled dramatic scene, completely intact, depicting a scene from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, set in an ornate glazed frame, on a side wall nearest the window. It was a revelation. When I first discovered it, just passing and glancing to my left, from the street, I was taken aback by the juxtaposition of this piece of pub victoriana amidst its rag-trade setting, set behind what was the counter of a clothing wholesaler, with sikh staff inside doing business. The tableux is on high dramaturgical victorian style, depicting actors in poses of high drama. When a pub there must have been other companion pieces like it on other walls inside, of other plays by Shakespeare or other scenes from the cannon of English, such as Chaucer? One can only wonder. Postscript: Passing the shop on Thursday I peeked in again and saw the picture vividly displayed, but the whole interior painted in a whitewash as the shop's under refurbishment. On Friday I had another look into the shop to see if there were any other vestiges of the pub's past, as the interior was otherwise empty. I could see nothing, from my brief and in expert glance but, sadly, the opulent Shakespearean scene was gone, boarded over, and protected, I imagine, and so allowing the users of the shop to make use of a surface which, previously, was denied them because of the mural. Sad to think this lovely artefact of a bygone age will be lost to view for how many years to come?

Jerard Patrick (September 2021)

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