See it, say it, drink it: How convenience shop on Sloane Square station’s westbound platform was once a PUB called the Hole in the Wall that served travelling punters with the help of a cat called Kim
- The Hole in the Wall finally closed after more than a century in 1985
- Kim the cat was often seen behind the bar at the small venue in the 1930s
For most of us, the daily commute to and from work is a chore that has to be endured.
But, for more than a century until 1985, Londoners could relieve the stress of travel on the Tube by stopping for a pint at Sloane Square Station’s tiny pub.
The latest episode of popular TV show Secrets of the London Underground, which airs tonight, tells how The Hole in the Wall served punters on the westbound platform.
And, back in the 1930s, those who ran the pub even owned a friendly cat called Kim, who happily greeted drinkers.
Londoners who only wanted a drink and did not need to get on a train could just buy a platform ticket to enjoy what was on offer.
For more than a century until 1985, Londoners could relieve the stress of travel on the Tube by stopping for a pint at Sloane Square Station’s tiny pub. The latest episode of popular TV show Secrets of the London Underground, which airs tonight, tells how The Hole in the Wall served punters on the westbound platform, and had a friendly cat called Kim. Above: A barmaid holds Kim the cat as a punter enjoys a drink in the 1930s
The outlet that once housed the pub – which was the last to serve alcohol directly on an Underground platform before the practice was banned – is now a convenience store.
Speaking from outside it in the programme, historian Siddy Holloway says: ‘Back in the mid-1980s this was a pub called the Hole in the wall.
‘Now if you weren’t travelling on the Underground, you could also buy a platform ticket to enter the premises.
‘Back in the 1930s there was even a pub cat that lived in the Hole in the Wall called Kim.
‘So you could have come off a train, walked into the pub, grabbed a pint and had a little play with Kim the cat.’
The Hole in the Wall featured along with another station pub at London’s Liverpool Street in novelist Iris Murdoch’s book A Word Child. Main character Hilary Burde visits the bar several times.
He says in the book: ‘After leaving the office I would travel to either Sloane Square or Liverpool Street to have a drink in the station buffet….The concept of the Tube station platform bar excited me.
‘These two bars were not just a cosy after-the-office treat.
‘They were a source of dark excitement, places of profound communication with London, with the sources of life.
The outlet that once housed the pub – which was the last to serve alcohol directly on an Underground platform before the practice was banned – is now a convenience store. Above: The platform with the pub in the 1980s, and more recently
Kim the cat is seen with a barmaid at the Hole in the Wall pub at Sloane Square Station in 1938
‘Drinking there between 6pm and 7pm in the shifting crowd of rush-hour travellers, one could feel on one’s shoulders…the weariness of toiling London, the blank released tiredness after work which can sometimes console even the bored.’
According to a note in The Times newspaper from August 1949, the ‘tavern’ had been on the platform since it was built in 1868.
Liverpool Street’s pub, on the eastbound platform of the Metropolitan Line, was called Pat-Mac’s Drinking Den.
Refreshment chain Spiers and Pond also had venues until 1932 at stations including Baker Street, Westbourne Park and Ladbroke Grove.
Secrets of the London Underground airs at 8pm on Yesterday.
