South East London CAMRA Celebrates 40 Years of Campaigning

40 CAMRA members and friends ‘hopped’ aboard an historic Routemaster bus to complete a tour of the branch area.

Beer lovers from the South East London branch of the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) recently celebrated in style 40 years of local campaigning for real ale, pubs and drinkers rights.

Appropriately enough, 40 CAMRA members and friends ‘hopped’ aboard an historic Routemaster bus to complete a tour of the branch area, stopping off at some of the best pubs on the way of course!

After departing from London Bridge, the circular route took in Peckham, Nunhead, Deptford, Plumstead Common, Forest Hill, Crystal Palace and Kennington.

The bus tour was the brainchild of the branch’s Pub Protection Officer, Neil Pettigrew, who explained: “I really wanted our celebration to be something special involving visits to some of the many great pubs in our area. Being a former bus conductor, to me a Routemaster was the ideal mode of transport!”

Branch Chair, Steve Silcock added: “The day was huge fun and a novel way for us to mark our 40th anniversary, and the bus certainly attracted a great deal of attention everywhere we visited. Such publicity is invaluable to us as, whilst the real ale scene both locally and nationally has improved markedly over the last four decades, the same cannot be said for the number of public houses. Therefore the need for local people to campaign on this issue remains as strong as ever. Here’s to the next 40 years!”

The inaugural meeting of the South East London branch of CAMRA took place on 15 July 1974 at the Lord Derby in Plumstead which sadly no longer exists as a public house.

Anyone wishing to contact the branch can get in touch via sel.camra.org.uk, @selcamra, @SELondonCamra, or facebook.com/selcamra

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