Posted Aug 5, 2001 by Scott Bennett-AKA Scoop
I was drawn to your article straight away out of severe homesickness.
You see I lived in Clapham Junction my whole life until I went to University 3 years ago in Lancaster but I went to school in Putney at Elliott School up by Putney Heath and conducted my entire social life in the area.
I was a regular attendee at the excellent Group Sixty-Four theatre group on Upper Richmond Road during my early teens. As a result of this I began my drinking career early in The Railway before graduating to the Fox and Hounds (both pubs chosen for speed between end of rehearsal and first pint) which has recently become The Fox.
However These drinking dens were the playground of my alcoholic career. You knew you were grown up when you were able to go to The Green Man up on the heath without being kicked out by its clientele which was made up almost entirely of teachers from Elliott. However there was an exciting incident when the teaching body was universaly banned from the pub after a serious fight broke out among them. The only exception to the ban was one Mr England, whose presence at the bar there is something akin to the relation between the Tower of London and its ravens.
On the subject of Beggar's Banquet I must add my full agreement. After school we would walk to BB on autopilot to rifle through the record racks that we knew by heart. Several of my friends have come to know the staff so well they get discounts.
By the way I heard the story of the duel as having been between Castlereagh and Canning but I do not claim to be ceratain of this is any way. What I am pretty sure of is that this event occured at the area of Putney Heath by the Green Man where there is a sheep pen which dates from around that time. This relic served my friends and I well as a place to go and hang about at lunchtime and smoke. Ah those were the days.
Oh and the Spencer Arms is not the only clue in the area to the familial link. There is also the Earl Spencer pub and bus route in Roehampton village.
Growing up in Putney was a great experience. It is without doubt the nicest area in which I have ever spent time (and despite the slow start that is a long list of places now). I am a big fan of the Library both in its swanky new image and its previous incarnation when it used to house the Wandsworth Museum.
Anyway your article is a great comfort to me trapped miles away from home.
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Posted Oct 17, 2007 by ceawlin
I was VERY briefly in Putney in Oct, 2006. What made it um, exciting, and, well, annoying was the fact that I was actually supposed to be at the British Museum! (If you hitchhike to do your research and you end up somewhere else, then okay. If you pay a couple or so hundred dollars and travelled about a thousand miles for the privilege of being in the wrong place with no time to actually go to the right place....)
If you click on my researcher ID you can link to my website, with my Blog entry, "Why Hell is in Putney". I'm starting to rethink the title and the whole Blog entry, the only thing that made it unpleasent at all was the fact that I shot an afternoon of a four day trip to the UK in the Green Man. The Green Man is quite a nice pub, only "real" pub I got to patronize during my trip. However, (and if you are reading this, Mr and or Mrs. Landlord) the price for a large glass of Coca Cola with Ice made me blush! I live near Boston, Massachuessetts, a city famous for fleecing people not "from round here". Ye Gods!
I'd welcome more research from the Green Man clientile as I consider re-writing my blog. Fair warning if you are scadalized by my blog entry, I am also considering my membership to the Procrastinator's Club here at H2G2, but have not gotten around to that, either.
On no circumstance should you read the blog entry titled "Toliet".
I am also willing to furnish research material in trade, preferably the St James Pub, in Fall River, Massachusetts, USA or the Irish Immigrant in New Bedford, I will consider the British Beer Company, but can tell you right now the Piccadilly Circus Chain Resturant/Pub over here is rubbish. 
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