Place Name
Originally a continuation of Denmark Road, it changed to its present name sometime in the late 19thCentury as development, which had started at the top of the hill, continued down towards Worple Road. The road was named after the King of Denmark pub, which had stood at 83 Ridgway until it was demolished. Like several pubs, and road names in the area, it had taken inspiration from Danish royalty (in 1876 the Alexandra pub, named after the Danish Princess, opened at the bottom of Wimbledon Hill and it was from this that the nearby Alexandra Road was named). This trend started after 1863 the year when the House of Glücksburg was founded with the crowning of King Christian IX. That same year the king’s daughter Alexandra of Denmark had married Edward (the future Edward VII) to become Princess of Wales. The pub’s name commemorated these events and was rewarded a century later by a visit by Frederick IX, the King of Denmark himself, accompanied by his daughter Princess Margrethe. As for the pub, it fared less well in the years that followed. Having been rebuilt in the 1930s it was passed from Courage to Scottish & Newcastle (one of very few pubs then owned by them in England) sometime around 2000. But it struggled against stronger competition from the nearby Swan despite being part of the famous Wimbledon Eight pub crawl – a favourite pass time of the actor and renowned drinker, Oliver Reed. In 2008 there were plans to turn it into a gastro bar with offices above, but after protests and appeals, the plans were scrapped. The pub was eventually demolished in 2011, and, according to the CAMRA website replaced by “unattractive flats built above empty space for which alcohol licence for restaurant was rejected. Co-op convenience store opened late 2017.”
