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Camden News - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 4 December 2008

‘We missed the area’: Kate and Terry Tidey back in charge

Now under old management

Happy returns as the Washington regulars welcome back publicans

REGULARS at a Belsize Park pub may be forgiven for a sense of déjà vu: the Tidey family, who ran the pub in the 1990s, have returned to their old haunt.
Publicans Terry and Kate Tidey bade a tearful goodbye to the Washington in 2001, after being told by the pub owners that they wanted fresh faces to manage the place.
Now the pair have returned to run the pub again to a rapturous reception from locals.
Mr Tidey first took control of “The Wash” in 1988 but left after 13 years in charge.
Happy to be back, he said: “They changed the culture of the pub. We’d been here a long time and the company decided they wanted a change, wanted to make it trendier.”
The family’s connections go back much further than 1978 when Terry and his brother William first got jobs behind the bar. Their great, great, great, grandfather Daniel Tidey was a builder and he was responsible for putting up entire streets in the area and building the Washington.
Mr Tidey said: “This pub was my roots. I brought up my children there. It was always busy and full of friendly faces, just like a good local should be.”
But as the trade in Belsize Park became trendy and gastro-pubs were all the rage, the couple left Englands Lane for the Queens Arms in Kensington.
Mr Tidey said: “I have to say we missed the area. Then we heard in the summer that the brewers wanted new landlords and approached us, so we thought we’d come and have a look.”

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