Ok, not flat-roofed, but I didn't know where else to put the oddest-looking pub in history, The Rifleman in Edmonton, North London:
Thing is, it's quite an interesting story behind it:
At the end of a dank alleyway on the boundary of Tottenham and Edmonton stood the abandoned Rifleman Public House. It had closed during the war, its heavy pint glasses no longer in need of a polish, its pumps no longer worthy of the name. Since then its piano had been wheeled away, its frosted window panes had been broken by little boys' stones and its bar top chopped up for firewood. On 19th June 1947, two men made The Rifleman their headquarters, their office and their factory floor. Pooling their savings of £600 Leslie and Rodney Smith, no relation to one another, bought a second hand die-casting machine and installed it in one of the rooms of the old pub. When they had done that, they die cast their Christian names at Companies House and became Lesney Products.
In 1953 the year after the Korean War had ended and with zinc restrictions lifted Lesney Products designed a miniature replica of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation carriage. Lesney Products sold one million of them and The Rifleman had suddenly become a goldmine. Initially they were oblivious to the financial implications of their million-selling carriage and, when the daughter of one of the partners returned home from school one day complaining that the only toys she could take into the playground where ones that fitted inside a matchbox, they set about making a replica of a diesel road roller that would fit the spec. When they then saw the commercial possibilities the Matchbox Series was launched.
(I said "interesting", meaning to people of a certain age and idiosyncratic range of interests, I suppose) |  |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
