The Old Fox & Hounds - London Road, Croydon, UK - Pictorial Pub Signs on Waymarking.com

There is a large, colourful sign on the southern end of the pub showing, unsurprisingly a fox and hounds!

The Croydon Citizen blog carries an article about the pub and its history:

The pub has been here since the mid-1800s at least. One source states that it arrived in West Croydon around 1800, having moved from a previous location on the High Street, though I’m reluctant to claim this as a proven fact since I haven’t found independent evidence of it.

What I can be fairly confident in stating is that land at the London Road site was purchased in 1835 by James and Thomas Turner, who leased it five years later to Edmund and William Calvert of the Calvert brewing family. The 1841 census lists a John Smith as “inn keeper” on the west side of the road (though no addresses are given at this early date). The 1844 tithe map shows a building in the current location, listed as “Croydon Station Inn”, assigned to John Tippett. The 1851 census lists a John Tebbutt as “victualler”, and a street directory from the same year has John Tebbutt as “licensed victualler” at the “Fox & Hounds”. So setting aside the vagaries of 19th century spelling, the Fox & Hounds has certainly existed under that name since at least 1851.

In 1877 the pub was sold at auction to the City of London Brewery Co, a successor company to Calvert’s, the former tenants. By 1951 it had changed hands again and was now owned by Charringtons. Charringtons merged with Bass in 1967 to form Bass Charrington Ltd, and finally Greene King bought the site from Bass on 1 January 1994. The Greene King purchase may have been the point at which the name changed from the Fox & Hounds to the Old Fox & Hounds; a photo taken 7 months earlier shows that as of June 1993 the signs on the frontage still read “Fox and Hounds”. Greene King still own the pub today, though it’s leased to Dempsey Taverns, who also run a number of other pubs and bars in the area.

The deed recording the 1840 lease to the Calverts includes a colour drawing of the pub (pictured right). It’s clear from this that many features of the frontage have been retained to the present day, but the drawing also omits the right-hand side of the modern building, suggesting that this side of the pub is a later addition. How much later, I’m not sure, though a newspaper photo from 1894 shows the extension in place.

Like many pubs, the Fox & Hounds was once divided into two sides: a public bar and a saloon bar, with the saloon bar offering a more refined experience. The public bar was on the left-hand side, in the original building, while the saloon bar was to the right, in the later-added extension. Today, there’s free passage between left and right with no need to go outside and back in again, though in common with many other previously-divided pubs, the two sides still retain a slightly different ambience.

The reason the pub was named the Fox & Hounds was most likely some original connection with foxhunting, possibly via the landlord or owner’s personal interest. As is often the case with interestingly-named pubs, the name has continued to resonate in various features of the pub over the years. According to one (non-contemporary) source, as of 1874 the landlord “provided hunting facilities for the guests”, and kept stables at the rear. The stables were still there in 1892, with a newspaper advertisement from that year boasting that the “Livery and Bait Stables have now every attention.”