Golly pub shuts down
 

A pub has closed for business a month after its collection of golly dolls was seized by police.

Five Essex Police officers removed the offensive dolls from behind the bar at the White Hart Inn, Grays, following a hate crime allegation.

Heineken and Carlsberg have told the pub to stop serving its lager, while maintenance company Innserve refused to continue working on site.

The pub's leaseholders closed the doors to customers on Monday night.

In an interview with Thurrock Nub News, co-leaseholder Benice Ryley cited opposition from the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) and the suppliers, and said: "I've had enough."

The police seized the dolls on 4 April and the building was vandalised with white paint and had its windows damaged on 16 April.

Camra removed the pub from its Good Beer Guide and also removed the Pub of the Year awards on display.

Mrs Ryley said the collection of about 30 dolls were donated by her late aunt and from customers, and had been in the pub for nearly 10 years.

"If they don't like it, they don't have to come through the door," she told the BBC last month.

A Heineken UK spokesperson said it told the pub on 20 April to stop serving its beer, and that it would stop supplying materials such as glasses, and said in a statement: "After being made aware of the abhorrent display feature in the White Hart Inn, we advised the pub owners that we want nothing more to do with them.

"They go against everything we stand for.

"We believe pubs should be places of inclusivity and respect for all people, regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion or gender."

Camra national chairman Nik Antona said on Wednesday: "We believe pubs are for everyone - there is never a place for discrimination."

An Essex Police spokesperson said: "At this stage our investigation is still ongoing."

Mrs Ryley declined to comment when contacted by the BBC and said she preferred to wait until police speak to her husband and fellow licensee, Chris Ryley, later this month.

He is currently abroad.

Admiral Taverns, the company which owns the pub building, said: "The licensees have made us aware of their decision to leave the pub.

"We will be looking to reopen the pub under the management of new licensees."

The dolls are thought to date back to minstrel entertainment shows, when typically white actors painted their faces black and depicted negative stereotypes of black people.

It became a fictional character that appeared in books from Florence Kate Upton in the late 19th Century.

The name for the dolls has since been used as a racial slur.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-65471314

Smh

Private companies don’t want to supply businesses that openly celebrate racism? Shocker

Ridiculous.

They're only dolls, why are people being such crybullies?

Heineken said
"They go against everything we stand for.

🤣🤣🤣

Yes, but those images went all around the World.


A real bad look,


https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/04...0873628441.jpg

The Couple Running the Pub
say they are Not Racist

Aye, so do Farage and Trump

Why assume they support racism?

I believe there were some dodgy tweets as well so not as innocent as they are making out

Great news for the alcohol hating Muslim community.

Let's have a mosque in its place.

They did this to themselves tbh

How easy would it be to secure a conviction for displaying golliwog dolls?
A conviction would be challenging, according to Mehta. He said the difficulty for a prosecuting lawyer would be convincing a jury of an intent to cause offence. He said: “My view is that, offensive though golliwogs are, it might be difficult to get it past a jury. It wouldn’t be a clearcut case.”

Can shops or websites be prosecuted for displaying golliwog dolls?
In theory. Mehta said: “If the police were to prosecute for merely displaying these dolls in a pub, then in principle, they should also be looking at the shops.” But he said it would be even more difficult to show intent to cause offence for someone selling golliwog dolls.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...group%E2%80%9D.

Inappropriate in this day and age…and understandably why.

The Pub that's got Golly Dolls in there was called the White Hart Inn?

Surely even the most right wing of people can clearly see that this was people that were not so subtly being racist?

I've heard that too.

Tbh this is a case where the Pub owners were asking for trouble.

YOu know that the newspaper media would have contacted the various breweries and asked them what is their reaction to the gollywogs and after a pr meeting they have to react as they do

Of course

The vast majority of rough sleepers in the UK are white but frick them... Let's all worry about some bloody gollies in case some white person gets outraged on behalf of black people.

So are you suggesting all publicans who run a 'White Hart pub or Inn' are possible racists????....