All Change As Publicans ‘Keep It In The Family’ – Step Back In Time

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I love old photographs – be it ones from my personal history, or those of others. I have a fascination with social history, and so I created the Step Back In Time Linky for bloggers to join in. I love seeing the people and places in a photograph, and hearing the story behind it!

Join in with the current linky here.

Newspaper Cutting - Step Back In Time

I have a HUGE memory box, filled with photos, old diaries, ticket stubs etc, and one gem that I rediscovered was this newspaper cutting from when I was a little girl. My parents had just become managers of The George and were featured in the local paper. Sadly a tiny piece has been ripped off over time, but here is what the article says:

All Change As Publicans ‘Keep It In The Family’

The new managers at one Wanstead pub are already familiar to customers.

Andy Vassiliou (26) and his wife Diane (26) first dabbled in the business four years ago at The George, Wanstead where they first met.

…. the time Andy was studying at…. London Polytechnic in Walthamstow…. part-time at the ….

Then Diane, who comes from Bethnal Green also joined the staff and received her training from her future husband.

Since then the couple, who have a baby daughter called Michelle, have gained experience by working at pubs in Chingford, Watford, Finchley and Romford.

Andy, who is a first-time manager at the George said: “We are beginning to get organised. The pub is my home and the customers are my guests.”

“I am driving myself and my staff hard so we give good service. We get job satisfaction here.”

The brewery plans to spend more than £10,000 giving the pub a facelift and the couple also plan to re-open the “Showboat” – the pub’s second restaurant.

The photo with the article is me with my parents and since I was around 1½ years old when this article was published in 1978, I had to phone up mum to see what she could remember about it.

Mum told me that her and dad took management of The George on April 23rd 1977, (which is my dad’s birthday), and that dad was studying civil engineering at college, before giving that up to become a pub manager. They got her age wrong, but in her favour! She was 29, not 26. The pubs in the other areas where they did their training were The Royal Forest in Chingford, The Oliver in Watford, The Manor Cottage in Finchley (where she was pregnant with me) and The Plough in Romford (where my dad went back to as a manager in the early 1990s).

Mum said that they did re-open the Showboat, but the brewery certainly didn’t spend the £10,000 promised! We ended up living at The George until 1989, and in that time my two sisters and my brother were born.

You can join in too with Step Back In Time…I’m really looking forward to reading everyone’s memories – please click on the image below to be taken to the Step Back In Time Linky to add your post.

Step Back In Time Linky on The Purple Pumpkin Blog

 

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