This pub is closed permanently. Your nearest Wetherspoon pubs: The Good Yarn or The Botwell Inn
Stockley Park was once an area used for brick-making and gravel extraction. Brick-making was thirsty work. However, refreshment was available at the long-standing, but now-demolished, beer house known as The White House. Until 1912, The Stockley Park area was known as Starveall. The change of name was initiated by Broad & Co which owned a brickworks there. ‘Stockley’ came from the well-known Cowley stocks, or bricks, produced there.
Illustrations, photographs and text about The White House.
The text reads: This J D Wetherspoon freehouse is situated in The Arena, the focal point of Stockley Park, Europe’s largest business park, formally opened in 1986.
Stockley Park occupies the northern portion of the old Dawley estate. The Bennet family owned the estate from 1607 until 1724, and built two manor houses and created impressive gardens. They are remembered by Bennetsfield Road, which passes alongside the lake in front of these premises.
The Stockley Park area was known as ‘Starveall’ until 1912. ‘Stockley’ came from the well known Cowley stocks, or bricks, made here. Brickmaking was thirsty work. Refreshment was available at Dawley Cottage, also known as the White House. It ceased to be a public house in 1959, and was demolished in 1990.
Prints and text about men in the area.
The text reads: In 1722 the Dawley estate - part of which is now occupied by Stockley Park - was sold to Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke, for the sum of £22,200.
The former Foreign Secretary and ‘Chief Minister’ had returned from exile in France following his political downfall. He chose Dawley as his rural retreat, which was also handily placed for him to visit London.
Bolingbroke was a man of letters and entertained the French philosopher Voltaire at Dawley. The poet Alexander Pope was a frequent visitor. Other well known literary guests included Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, the dramatist Oliver Goldsmith and the poet John Dryden.
Illustrations and text about Tattersall’s stud farm.
The text reads: Dawley became the home of the famous Tattersall’s stud farm around 1790, and remained here until the late 1830’s, when it moved to Willesden.
The firm’s fortunes had been established by Richard Tattersall (1724-1795), when he acquired the racehorse Highflyer, which had been owned by Lord Bolingbroke, a dissolute descendent of the famous Viscount, who had got into debt.
Richard, known as Richard 1st, handed the reins of the business on to his son Edmund (1758-1810), who in turn handed it to another Richard, known as Old Dick (1788-1859).
The well known racehorses bred, or at stud, at Dawley included Sir Hercules, Recovery, Glencoe, Harkaway, Charles XII and The Colonel, winner of the St Leger in 1828.
An aerial shot of Stockley Park.
Photographs of the Rotunda under construction in 1988.
The Rotunda is part of the main entrance to the pub.
An illustration of The Arena concept.
The Arena is the large glass building attached to the pub.
The Arena photographed from the outside.
External photograph of the building – main entrance.
If you have information on the history of this pub, then we’d like you to share it with us. Please e-mail all information to: pubhistories@jdwetherspoon.co.uk