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From the Mercury, 29 January 1965.
MAYOR IS REFUSED DRINK AT COLOURED-BAR PUB.
THE Major of Lewisham, Cllr. Tom Bradley, walked out of the saloon bar of
the "Dartmouth Arms," Forest Hill, on Wednesday night after the licensee had
refused to serve him.
He had ordered a drink for himself and a friend but had never received them.
The reason: His friend was coloured. And the publican. Mr. Harold Hawes,
refuses to serve coloured people in the saloon bar.
Mr. Melbourne Goode, vice chairman of Brockley International Friendship
Association, arrived with the Mayor shortly before 7 p.m. Cllr. Bradley
walked to the bar and ordered a drink for Mr. Goode and himself.
When refused by Mr. Hawes, Cllr. Bradley asked if he would be prepared to
discuss his recent actions. Mr. Hawes replied, “This matter is entirely in
the hands of my solicitors. See them.”
Two minutes after I arriving they left. “It wasn’t a complete waste of
time,” Cllr. Bradley told a Mercury reporter afterwards, “I had read a lot
of reports of incidents in the pub and I wanted to see what the situation
was at first hand.
 
Above photo left showing Mayor, Cllr. Tom Bradley, photo right, Mr.
Melbourne Goode.
Keep trying.
“What I wanted to do was to bring both sides together on this matter but
that seems nearly impossible. I am going to see Mr. Hawes’ solicitor."
Mr. Goode who helped run the demonstration outside the pub on Saturday, said
it was sad that there appeared to be no solution to the problem. “But we
have to keep trying. We don’t even know what his reason is for holding this
colour bar. If we knew that perhaps we could do something about it" he said.
A motion, was placed before Lewisham Council last night (Thursday) by Cllr,
William Brett, attacking Mr. Hawes’ segregation policy.
The motion said: "This Council wishes to place on record its abhorrence of
racialisms of any form within this borough, and strongly deplores the action
of the landlord of the Dartmouth Arms, Forest Hill, in operating a form of
segregation on his licensed premises.”
COLOURED-BAR PUBLICAN BREAKS HIS SILENCE.
The "silent" publican of
the Forest Hill "colour bar" pub spoke out this week and claimed that
his segregation saloon bar was the customer's wish and not his own.
Mr. Harold Hawes told a Mercury reporter: "The funny thing is that I am
not against coloured people. I have taken a conscience of opinion of the
people that use the saloon and they don't want to have coloureds using
it.
CONTROVERSY.
I feel that my trade has increased because people
know that they won't find coloured people in my saloon bar."
Asked whether his trade had suffered because of the demonstrations he said:
"Whenever these pickets take place I always do a roaring trade. It
doesn't matter how long they keep up the demonstration I am never going
to change my mind."
The "Dartmouth Arms" was once again the centre of
controversy when fifty people marched outside the pub on Saturday. Among
the demonstrators was Joan Lestor, West Lewisham's Labour candidate at
the last general election. She told the Mercury: "There is not one part
of South East London where there are not coloured people. People must be
tolerant and we must integrate."
Another demonstrator was the curate
of St. Hilda's Crofton Park, who arrived with eight members of the
Church youth club.
He said that Mr. Hawes' license to sell drinks was
to be objected at the next meeting of the Blackheath licensing Sessions
on February 9, by members of the Blackheath Friendship Association, who
arranged the picket outside the public house.
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