A Lotus Pub

A piece of automotive trivia.The idea of a car manufacturer, particularly a high performance car manufacturer,having a pub seems very non PC nowadays but back in 1974 Lotus ,in conjunction with the brewer Ind Coope,opened the Pub Lotus in Primrose Hill ,South London .The common thread was that Ind Coope were part of the Imperial ( (Tobacco) Group who were sponsors of the Lotus F1 team (Gold Leaf and later John Player Special).
Some pics,thanks to Roger Putnam,of the opening night of the Lotus pub -called Pub Lotus.
Lotus boss Colin Chapman-look at those sideburns- being interviewed by Gordon Wilkins with Ron Dennis,now el supremo of McLaren, with his default superior aloof expression in the background immediately to left of Chapman.
Team Lotus driver,Australian,Dave Walker,in the Lotus F1 car with Bobby Moore a soccer player and finally Stirling Moss being Stirling Moss being interviewed by Judith Jackson.

I don't know how long the Pub Lotus lasted.The exterior looks pretty grim but maybe all pubs in London looked like that in1974.The 1960's and 70's and well into the 80's were a pretty grim time for beer in the UK .The few major brewers controlled 90%+ of the pubs and horrible, warm carbonated,lolly water was marketed as beer with names such as Red Barrel ( later shortened to Red- what marketing genius thought of that one?) and Double Diamond.Yuk.
 And how about the two classic 60's cars in the street? A Morris Minor and a Triumph Herald -one of the worst cars ever made by the British car industry- which is saying something- probably only just edged out of first place by the Austin Allegro.Just look at those door gaps even on the little photo they are huge.Those were the days.