New Deptford pub opens tonight

Finally there's a new pub on Deptford High Street! Antic opens The Job Centre this evening (5pm-1am). Expect a range of good beers and a 'Spanish influenced' wine menu among the refreshments on offer. Apparently the kitchen will open soon with 'snacking plates and hearty main dishes'. And there'll be 'diverse weekly live music and events'.

Until today, there was only one pub left open on the high street, the Vietnamese-owned White Swan, previously a big old Irish bar. The last pub to close on Deptford High Street was the Deptford Arms in May 2010, which like so many other pubs, became a betting shop.

The new bar opening is undoubtedly good news for those locals who can afford a night out, but there does seem to be some unfortunate rewriting of history in Antic's publicity. They claim to have taken the pub name "from the employment agency that occupied Deptford in the late 70s". Perhaps they feel the need to distance themselves from an unpleasant reality. Deptford Job Centre actually closed far more recently – in November 2010 – as many long-term or sometime unemployed locals will painfully recall. Not only have they had to schlep all the way over to Catford to sign on since the job centre closed, they also won't be able to afford to drink in the new pub.