A South London boozer that even the owner admits used to be “quite dodgy” has faced a backlash from locals after it applied to serve alcohol until 2am on weekends. 

People living near the Bird in Hand in Forest Hill claim the pub already attracts drug dealers and say they’re kept awake by punters smoking weed and hanging around outside.

They fear the problems could get worse if the pub is allowed to serve drinks for an extra hour on Friday and Saturday nights and until 1am on Thursdays.

One local mum said she currently feared her husband would be attacked by customers every time he went outside to ask them to quieten down so their young daughter could sleep.

The woman, who failed to give her name, told a Lewisham Council licensing meeting on August 8: “In summer we have to have the window open and there’s people drug dealing out there and smoking on the balcony, making noise.

"My husband is constantly having to go out and ask people to be quiet or move on and it really worries me when he goes out there someone is going to attack him.

"If they’re drug dealers they could have guns. They could have knives. They could have all sorts.”

Sharon Vardy, another local resident, told the meeting she struggled to sleep because of the smell of cannabis and noise from taxis turning around outside her house.

She said: “In the last week people have been there late. There has been drug dealing. We’ve also had the problem with cars in order to pick people up, go down and turn around basically into our forecourt up and down the road.

"It’s a single carriage road as you all know and that means we’re all disturbed. We are unable to open windows given the noise.

“In the last week there has been rotting food left out in the underground area. […] All of us wish to sleep. None of us want the smell of marijuana coming into our bedrooms.” 

Anthony Thomas, who bought the pub earlier this year, admitted the Bird in Hand used to attract a bad crowd under its previous owners but said he was determined to spruce up its image.

Mr Thomas previously ran the Sylvan Post, which is directly opposite the Bird in Hand, for a decade but had to abandon the operation during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.

He told the meeting: “We know about its rather chequered history. The pub has largely been operated by large chains.

"It was a bit of a discount offer and if I can use a bit of a colloquialism: it was a bit of an old man’s boozer.

“Quite clearly there has been an awful lot of nefarious activity which may have taken place in the pub or around the pub. […] We know it has been quite dodgy and I have absolutely no doubt that us simply being in place will clean it up.”

Mr Thomas, who has been in the pub business since 1999, added: “Clearly that doesn’t happen instantly… [but] it’s fair to say the old clientele have most definitely moved on.

"There will still be some remnants and we’ve got a process of eradicating that completely. With these licence changes we think we can modernise. We can make it very similar to the 29 establishments that we operate throughout largely South London.”

The Bird in Hand on Dartmouth Road can currently serve booze until 1am on Friday and Saturday nights and until 11pm the rest of the week.

Lewisham Council will announce its decision on the pub’s application within the next week.