Tattenham Corner

In the old days we used to wind up the Downs part of Derby Day in the Tattenham, the large public house at Tattenham Corner. Or rather not in the Tattenham, which was probably closed, certainly to walk-ins, but on the terrace outside, overlooking the race corner. A truly tremendous view over the busy Downs after a long day. And sometimes there were late afternoon thunderstorms. The Imperial Scholar noticed at reference 1, comes from this very establishment.

From where I associate this morning to the even more famous occasion when we won a lot of money by betting a modest amount on an outsider called 'Jet Ski Lady'. An occasion when, as I recall, a bookmaker on the Hill, not our one, got into trouble with the lads for attempting to do a runner after the race, presumably having taken one too many bets on said Lady.

We thought about going there this Derby Day, inside that is rather than outside, but their booking system suggested that the place had been taken for some corporate event and was closed for the two days of the meeting to online bookings. But we did make it for our wedding anniversary some weeks later, to find that a great deal of money had been spent on upgrading the terrace outside. The view was still very impressive.

I thought that the beer shed, visible centre right above, had been upgraded too - and moved from right to left while they were at it. But it is a long time since we were there.

They - Young's - had spent even more money inside, with our having been allocated seats in the impressive barn like area on the road side of the establishment. Lots of brown wood, both new and old. Lots of stuff, some of it looking quite expensive.

A version of the brown wood style favoured, perhaps invented, by Wetherspoon's for their many inner city make-overs. I associate this morning to their 'George’s Meeting House' in Exeter, which still has its impressive pulpit. Or at least, it did have when we were last there. And still there as far as Bing is concerned, as evidenced by the snap above.

Feeding the image back into Google Image search just to be sure, much confirmation that it is indeed the house in Exeter that I was thinking off. One or two incorrectly labelled images and some from a rival establishment in Dublin, snapped above and for which see reference 7.

So from where did they, that is to say the people at Tattenham Corner, pick up the stuff zoomed above?

Impressive, rather in the way of the Duchess at Poundbury, noticed, for example at reference 2, but not very busy, so a bit lacking in atmosphere. Plenty of pleasant staff though, mainly young women. Our waitress, who was not so young, explained that it had not been very busy at all on Derby Day, so that was a bit of a mystery, not, in the event, to be dispelled. Maybe we will make it next year.

Kicked off with a pint of special, then an interesting take on prawn cocktail for him. Rather good. Some sort of vegetable soup for her.

Followed by hock pie for him. 'Heritage beetroot, kohlrabi & artichoke salad' for her.

The pie was better than average, the chips rather ordinary and the gravy well OTT. Luckily it was safely in a jug, even though I had quite forgotten to ask for it on the side, just in case. The samphire was an extra, but something the chef seemed quite keen on, with it appearing more than once.

The pickled walnut in BH's salad had us puzzling for a bit, but we got there in the end. Not something that we see very often. We then got into a muddle about frise, chicory, endive and celeriac, the first three of which coincide. I had to check up again on endive this morning.

Our bill came without service and the machine did not do sums, so the waitress when told to round up to X had to do the subtraction in her head and add in Y by hand. All very challenging. And I am sure that some of these (hand held) machines can manage to do such sums for you.

On the way out we chatted to a couple of builders doing an inspection, it turns out for the contractor who did the refurbishment. Just checking for any final snags. Their story was that it was a heritage barn and that Young's had spent a great deal of money on doing a heritage job on it. And that it had always been open above; the refurbishment had not included taking out the ceiling. 

Which last, while possible, would have meant rather oddly place dormer windows, for which see the first interior snap above.

All of which prompted inquiry when we got back home.

Some of the elaborate seating outside.

While a late stroll produced the very striking fungus snapped above. A fungus which very quickly faded to a dull white in the days following. Chicken of the woods? Edible? All confirmed by Google Images, references 3 and then 4. A name I think I first came across in an episode of 'Midsomer Murders', probably the one at reference 5 although I have not checked properly.

Some quite decent blackberries in Court Recreation Ground.

And a closeup of the large fallen branch, noticed previously. Clearly all was not well inside, even if the outside was sound enough.

Home to inquiry. Bing did not turn up much heritage, so I went mapping with the Scots at their library. Nothing there in 1875 or so.

A bit of life by 1910, but still no public house.

But it had arrived by 1930 or so. Also known as Tattenham Corner House.

And enlarged.

And, lastly, gmaps. The story I take from of all of this being that the place was built in the mid 1930s on a green field site. No heritage at all, rather in the fake grand cottage style, popular at the time. So perhaps the builders had been a bit creative with their talk of barn conversion.

Last try was the Epsom Planning Application system. Lots of stuff about changes to racing buildings, both on the course and on the stables just below the pub, but very little on the pub itself, with what little there was mainly being about the refurbishment of the terrraces outside. Nothing that I could find about the inside at all. Perhaps Young's were careful to keep the changes inside more or less invisible from the outside, which meant that they did not have to involve planners, bat surveyors or anyone else.

So I still have no idea what the barn like area we ate in would have looked like when it was first built, getting on for a century ago. About the same age, as it happens, as our own house, on the other side of town.

PS 1: BH tells me that we ate there once, perhaps twenty years ago, in its days as a Beefeater. But I have no memory of that at all.

PS 2: the snap of our new car at reference 5 was taken on this occasion. To which I might add that yesterday we spent quality time on learning how to access the user manual on the central screen and on learning how to work the wipers. We failed to learn how to turn off the radio in a simple way, although we did stumble across a couple of workarounds. Not a particularly good manual and we are not there yet on the wipers, but we are making progress.

References

Reference 1: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2011/01/scenes-from-publical-life.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/05/views-of-poundbury.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laetiporus_sulphureus.

Reference 4: https://www.delicirecipes.com/chicken-of-the-woods/.

Reference 5: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0647487.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-new-car-series-2-episode-2.html.

Reference 7: https://www.thechurch.ie/.