THIS year is a landmark year for Gerry O’Brien. The Clare man is marking 30 years in business with his Kensington pub, The Churchill Arms – and what a 30 years it has been.
Taking his pub from an empty shell to the striking, flower-covered building seen in Kensington today, Gerry has had an eventful time in London.
With the outside an explosion of colour, your hopes are high going through the main doors – and you will not be disappointed.
The walls and ceilings are dripping with memorabilia collected by Gerry over the years and each and every one of them tells a tale.
Gerry spoke to The Irish Post about his favourite memories from his three decades behind the bar at the pub – and these memories are sure to make you laugh…
The Churchill Arms 30 years ago“IT’S NOT FOR ME...”
It was about 27 or 28 years ago I think. We do Churchill night each November for Churchill’s birthday but this particular year we were actually celebrating the day he became Prime Minister so it was in May. I had all the staff dressed up in 1940s outfits, in old RAF uniforms and all that.
On this day anyway, a young man called James Keogh came to the pub for a job interview and apparently he took one look inside, looked around at everyone dressed in their ‘40s gear and said, “This is not for me” and turned and walked out – he didn’t want to work in a themed bar at all.
But then he said, “I’ve come this far so I might as well chat the owner” and eventually myself and himself sat down for a chat and I convinced him that the staff didn’t always dress that way and to come in for a second interview. I ended up hiring him and he was absolutely brilliant.
He stayed for a few years and moved on then but he’s actually back working for me now as general manager of the pub.
The exterior of the pub has changed over the yearsA DROP OF CLARET
I remember one Halloween in the pub a fair few years back. We always decorate like mad and have the place covered in stuff but in the early days we didn’t have as much as we do now.
All the staff were dressed up anyway and the customers too so we were having a Best Dressed competition and the place was absolutely packed.
One of the barmen, Brian, went out the back to open a window because it was very hot with everyone there and we were all in costume. So Brian went to open the window anyway and one chap was walking past at the same time and an oil lamp fell down and hit him on the head. He was quiet badly cut from it.
There was blood pouring down his face and in his hair and everything and Brian brought him back out to the bar. I was busy serving and he started saying something to me, pointing at the poor fellow, but I couldn’t hear him so just said “Yes, he’s definitely one of the winners”.
I even handed him a bottle of wine for his prize before I realised. Eventually we got him to hospital and he came back later on and we gave him a second bottle of wine, so he ended up with two for his troubles!
Gerry with the dray horsesWEE PROBLEM
I collect chamber pots in the pub here, I think I’ve got about 112 at the moment. I get them myself and others drop them in to me because they know I collect them.
One day this man brought one in to me and it had Hitler’s face on the inside of the pot, so I said I’d hang it up and thought nothing more.
Then a few years back a German journalist came in to the pub. She was over doing an article on the best pubs in London, so I showed her around the place.
I remembered the Hitler chamber pot then when I was giving her the tour so I was showing her the pots and I said, “I have a special one for you” and showed her the Hitler one.
Well, she had a face like thunder when she turned around and I told her it was just a bit of a joke. I don’t think we ended up getting a mention in her article in the end.
Clare man Gerry outside the pubGROWING PAINS
I absolutely love plants and I have them hanging everywhere here but years back in the early days I’d about 200 of them hanging up on these metal beams in the conservatory part of the pub.
They hung there grand anyway and I was upstairs shaving one day about a quarter of an hour before opening time and one of the staff shouted at me to come down.
I ran downstairs and the beams had fallen so there were 200 plants on the floor. The place looked like an earthquake had hit.
At the time, we happened to have a group from Thailand over and one of them was in the room at the time.
Luckily, none of the plants hit him on the head or anything but it was very funny to see him stand in the middle of this room filled with flowers and clay everywhere – luckily he was okay though!
