Home > Hertfordshire > Croxley Green > Duke Of York Duke Of York
Date of photo: 1989	Picture source: Hannu Hakonen
The Duke Of York was situated on Watford Road. This pub closed in 2006 and has now been demolished and replaced by houses. It was previously known as The Gladstone Arms.
"Hello I'm Mick and I drink Mild" "Hello and I'm Barbara and we haven't got any yet" and so it began. Bob and Barbara Hallett took over the pub in 1977 and as even the first customer found out there was rarely a dull moment. A lot of hard work went into it but eventually with several dart and football teams amongst others it became a real community pub. Charity events were regular, the annual fancy dress party saw six foot budgies sitting up trees, a Viking with a bucket for a helmet as doorman, because he was too tall to fit under the ceiling and a nun sat in the corner of the bar with a pint and a clay pipe stunning two passing customers who spotted him/her. One year Bob took the pub dog, Shandy, for a walk at 4am still dressed as Henry the VIII, the first customer in the pub the next lunchtime had great pleasure in telling him that he had seen him walking down Watford Road. Shandy went missing one New Years eve, Barbara phoned the police to report him lost and they asked if he had any distinguishing features, Barbara said:" yes, he is wearing a party hat". The 24 hour dart marathons coincided with putting up the Christmas decorations - Bob would dump the box on the pub floor tell people what needed to go where, and disappear to bed. At 7am he would reappear with a tray of bacon sandwiches and inspect how the dart players had done. The annual walk to Roundwood Hostel in St. Albans was a 13 mile walk and when you got there the residents played football against us!. Barbara actually walked back too one year completing 26 miles. The regulars were characters too. One pair of printers had told their wives that they started work an hour earlier than they really did so they could call in for a couple on the way to their night shift. It all nearly went wrong when one of the duo rushed in one bank holiday announcing to everybody that he, his partner in crime and their wives were coming in as the wives thought "It looked a nice place to have a drink" Their wives didn't know they drank there every night and were known by all. You see the other side of people where alcohol is concerned. One of the ffunniest moments was the evening that someone, having been asked to leave threw his glass at Barbara. With a quick sidestep she reached out, caught the glass one handed and thanked him. In 1984 ITV's Six O'clock show came to film a pre FA Cup Final piece. The place was packed all afternoon. Cup final day brought chaos with so many people trying to get in the pub that the crowd covered the garden, the car park and blocked Watford Road by 10.30. The building itself nearly fell down - during a revamp the builders knocked out a supporting wall, the upstairs and downstairs never did join in most places again. Then they built a wall upside down - if you had wanted to use the gents you would have needed to stand on your head! There is an old well in the car park, nobody knew of it's existence until a hole appeared in the car park entrance and got bigger and bigger as traffic
Alan Hallett (April 2022)
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