Thank you BMqpr for trying to get this back on topic (and to you Marianne for your PS).

Am I the only one who thinks we need a tesco local to sell cheap booze and pastry treats???

The new owners are Enterprise Inns; one of the bigger pub chains, I believe, with thousands of 'outlets' in their portfolio. I hope they retain the comedy and live music (both of which will be in short supply otherwise) though I fear they sound more like a Wetherspoons-type operation. Not that there's anything wrong with that - but we surely don't need another one.

There are pubs tied to Enterprise, but they don't run pubs under their own brand, like Weatherspoons do. The Dartmouth Arms is an Enterprise pub, I believe.

The Dartmouth Arms, the Dolphin in Sydenham and the Golden Lion also in Sydenham are all Enterprise pubs, I believe. The Golden Lion is apparently restarting live music in September.

There's a new sign up in the window that suggests it's going to change name to The Signal.

Came across this job ad - "experience with live fire cooking is essential"...

http://www.caterer.com/JobSeeking/Ambiti...ob63465197

A shortened version of its original name - The Railway Signal.

Anyone know when it's due to open?

Interesting indeed. Small menu = good signs. Whenever I see a big menu at pub I start to get weary.


I saw a notice on the front to vary it's license? Is that just to change owner or change their liquor serving terms and conditions? There were no details on the notice.


I can't remember what time The Hob stayed upon until. Usually they closed up around midnight it seemed.

Stuck my nose in yesterday and the new bar area is underway.

Did a bit of Googling on this:

- Enterprise Inns is the landlord but won't be running the pub directly.

- a new company called Hippo Inns will run the pub. Apparently it's a joint venture between Enterprise Inns and Rupert Clevely, who created a chain of gastro pubs called Geronimo Inns and later sold them to Young's.

- blurb from one of their job adverts:

"Rupert Clevely, founder of Geronimo Inns is launching Hippo Inns, a vibrant and energetic new company out to serve great fresh food, local beer and fantastic cocktails. We believe the pub should be the hub of the local community and we are looking for someone who can bring people together and create that home from home environment.

We want to work with the best of the best from our suppliers to our staff. We work with niche local producers to well established brands that help to inspire our team and give our customers a unique and beautiful product.

We are a young and creative team of people who will launch our first baby Hippo in Forest Hill at the end of September. Our family will grow quickly, with pubs of all shapes and sizes, so the potential to learn and develop as a Manager is huge. We believe that life is too short to not enjoy your job, so we want to find people who love and care about what they do who will share their ideas and have fun."

- blurb from the Sous Chef advert:

"Our food offer aims to move away from the 5 starters and 5 mains of British classics that you see in many gastro pubs. It harks back to the simplicity of open fire cooking from when Alehouses were first born. We aim to use the best British ingredients we can and to serve them respectfully, with little fuss. The preparation and management of our ingredients is as integral to us as the cooking, from our Gloucestershire smoked fish to our London baked Sourdoughs everything requires love and attention. The menu at The Signal revolves around our English charcoal fire pit that feeds the spit and the robata style grill, so experience with live fire cooking is essential."

- Hippo Inns have a website but there's nothing on it yet. I tried to sign up for the newsletter but it didn't work. http://www.hippoinns.com

Sounds great!

Hello all, first post.

Anyone know if gigs that were scheduled there have moved to somewhere else?

http://www.stewartlee.co.uk/live-dates/

Stewart Lee's meant to play the Hob tonight, but evidently he won't. It's still on his website so I've emailed the publicity team to find out !

Like blushingnails I also did some googling around The Hob. The Morning Advertiser suggests that Enterprise Inns sold it at auction as part of a scaling down of their London pub stock back 2010: see http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Opera...at-auction

Building on blushingnails post and the Hippo/Clevely-Enterprise 'joint venture', more is revealed in a Propel Newsletter post of July 2015 http://www.propelinfonews.com/pi-Newslet...020:00:00, which suggests that The Hob is the first pub where the Enterprise and Hippo 'business model' will operate....

This might be of interest, sounding positive!!

http://www.foresthillsociety.com/2015/09...y-hob.html

A cocktail bar. Superb! Open fire food, wonderful!

I'm in

I've got a feeling this pub is going to be a massive success. It will be interesting to see what vibe they go for.

Am I alone in thinking the loss of The Hob will be a loss for Forest Hill? I'll miss the live music, best comedy for miles, the pub quiz, the pool table, the mix of people.
I think it's a shame.

As long as they serve a pint for less than £3.50 I'll be down with them

Is it open? looked like there were people inside having a drink tonight...
They've worked hard to get it ready quickly.

Someone asked @hippo_inns the same question on Twitter. Reply said they are having a few dry runs before opening on Thursday at 5pm.