The Dinner's in the Dog

Trouble is we never had a dog, so more than likely the dinner was in the bin. So what brought that on then? A bit of history will explain.

It has just come to my attention that a pub in East Croydon, The Porter and Sorter is about to be demolished to make way for a redevelopment. The site of which the pub is a part sits opposite a ten story building which used to house the major London computer centre for IBM.

It was here nearly forty years ago that I first started work. I attended the building for aptitude tests and interviews before being offered a job as a computer operator, working a three shift system for the princely sum of £1200 per annum plus shift premium. Occasionally one was required to work 'float' which meant you covered core hours 10am to 6pm and it was while working these hours that the Porter and Sorter came into its own.

The pub was the hub of the social network of the building. The management team would go there after work, and occasionally the sales director and other high flyers would join them. It was a place where all grades in the Company could go and socialise in a way rarely experienced now. The hours just passed in a blur, but with the station right next door, people would fall out of the pub and not need to think about drinking and driving. The problems occurred when you got home bladdered several hours later than expected.

At one point previous to my employment the brewery decided the pub needed a new name, so they commissioned a competition to find a suitable one. A smart man in IBM suggested The Sweaty Sock for no better reason than he was a Jocko. Word got round that this was the proposed IBM name and consequently it won hands down. The brewery, however, did not feel it was an appropriate name and given the pub sat between the station and the post office, The Porter and Sorter was the name they decided on.

The work ethic of the seventies and eighties was very much a work hard, play hard one, and the pub epitomised all that was good about the office. Sadly all that has now been lost as people work from home or are based on client premises. IBM is closing offices with great regularity now, with the Croydon branch closing nearly 15 years ago. The social fabric of the business is being fragmented as a result. Graduates joining the Compnay now know no different, and with their extensive training programme and intern arrangements, they are one part of the organisation which maintains a community feel.

Its we 'living legends' who watch with sadness as the fabric which we were such a part of crumbles before our eyes. The demolition of the Porter and Sorter may just be the final nail in the coffin. Its work Jim but not as we know it.