Old friends and Kings Head regulars gathered in Santa Monica last Wednesday to celebrate the 40th birthday of Ye Olde King’s Head. Several of those in attendance dated their patronage of the pub back to 1974, when founders Phil and Ruth Elwell transformed a dive bar called the Brass Bell in what was then a seedy stretch of Santa Monica, into what was to become perhaps the most famous British pub in the USA.
Phil and Ruth were on hand, visiting from their home in Palm Springs to help celebrate the landmark date, and they were joined by longtime patrons including John and Linda Hiscock, Steve and Beverly Mills, Michael Reidy, Nicola Bryan, the BW’s own Anne Shaw and the Union Jack’s indefatigable columnist Leo Lewis, who told us all about his “BritWeekend” extravaganza in the Channel Islands Harbor as part of the BritWeek celebrations. Many pints were sunk, many old memories revisited, many absent friends toasted.
“Nothing’s changed,” marvelled Phil. “Tonight it’s just the same as it always was. But Santa Monica – that’s really changed. Now it’s a big, busy city. It used to be a village.”
All in all a great night in a great British LA institution.
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