152–154 Addington Road, Selsdon, London, CR2 8LB

This pub is named after Sir Julian Huxley, one of the main backers of the Selsdon Wood Nature Reserve and the first Director-General of UNESCO. The nature reserve was opened in 1936 and is now managed for The National Trust by Croydon Council Parks Department.

Prints and text about Sir Julian Huxley.

The text reads: Brother of Aldous, son of Leonard and grandson of T H – the famous evolutionist, nick-named “Darwin’s Bulldog”- Julian Huxley was Professor of Zoology and a humanist writer, allied with H G Wells and J B S Haldane.

He saw the political and social implications of evolutionary theory, and wrote them up as proposals under the banner of ‘evolutionary humanism’. He was the first Director-General of UNESCO between 1946-48.

Photographs, illustration and text about Sir Julian Huxley.

The text reads: The Selsdon Wood Nature Reserve was opened in 1936. The money to buy the land was raised by subscription, and one of the notable subscribers was Sir Julian Huxley. The reserve is now managed for the National trust by Croydon Council Parks Department.

Sir Julian was the son of Leonard Huxley and the brother of Aldous. A distinguished biologist, he formulated the ethical theory of “evolutionary humanism”, based on natural selection. In1946 Sir Julian Huxley became the first Director-General of UNESCO.

Top: left, Huxley with his grandfather T H H – “Darwin’s Bulldog”, right, with Aldous and a baby orang-utan, 1956
Above: right, a Fellow of New College Oxford 1922, left, Sir Julian at work.

Prints and text about Ruth Ellis.

The text reads: Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in England, worked the Court Club in Duke Street during the late 1940’s as a ‘hostess’. The club’s owner, Morris Conley was convicted in 1961 for keeping a brothel.

It was here that she met the ‘mad dentist’ George Ellis, who had practiced nearby at Sanderstead Hill. Despite a volatile relationship whilst they lived together in Sanderstead, the pair married in November 1950. The marriage failed. She was prone to fits of jealousy, he was generally drunk and unreliable, and during her pregnancy she left him.

She was hanged in July 1955, after killing her lover David Blakely, who had taken up with another woman.

A photograph of Addington Road.

A photograph of Farley Road.

A photograph of Addington Road.

External photograph of the building – main entrance.