Charlie Brown Junior

Following the death of Charlie Brown in June 1932, his estate was divided between his two children, Ethel and Charlie.  To escape heavy death duties, his famous Curio Collection had been divided between them sometime earlier.  

Ethel had married Tom Chandler and together with Charlie Brown had run the Railway Tavern, aka “Charlie Browns”, in the West India Dock Road for a number of years.  Charlie Brown Junior also had a pub in West India Dock Road, opposite the Railway Tavern called the Blue Post, acquired by him around the time of the First World War.

After the death of Charlie Brown, Ethel and Tom continued to run the Railway Tavern and this led to a bitter feud them and Charlie Brown Junior.  They both claimed that their pub was “Charlie Browns”.  This led to a bizarre situation where there were two “Charlie Browns” in the West India Dock Road and they were opposite each other.  To complicate maters even further both publicans had on display their share of the Curio Collection.  Of course, with the name, “Charlie Browns”, went the unofficial title of “uncrowned King of Limehouse”.

 The feud ended in 1936 when Ethel and Tom left the Railway Tavern.  In 1938, Charlie Brown Junior  also moved away from Limehouse to the leafy suburb of Woodford,  where he became the landlord of the newly built Roundabout.  This ended the long link between the Brown family and Limehouse.

Charlie Brown Junior died nine years later.  The three pubs no longer exist.  Ironically the Railway Tavern and the Roundabout were both demolished to make way for road improvements. In traffic reports on the radio, we hear of congestion at Charlie Brown’s roundabout, built on the site of the Roundabout and named after Charlie Brown Junior.