New Belsize Story: Tidey family update
The Tidey family
by Katie Tidey
The Washington Pub photographed by David S. Percy
I used to live in Notting Hill back in the 1990s and early 2000s and would often meet friends in The Washington pub as it was located between the areas where we all lived.
I was a member of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, and it wasn’t until I received the monthly magazine that had an article about The Washington and Terry 'Tidy' that everything fell into place. Terry’s surname had been misspelt which is a common mistake but at the time I had read the article I wasn’t aware it was a misspelling until I recalled the following.
Many years previously, when I was 16 or so, I use to go to BIPEX in Kensington with my father to look for old postcards of the village where my father grew up and his family ran the local shops also called 'Tideys'. We had a book of 'Tideys' which listed addresses of where other Tideys lived etc, and Terry Tidey was listed as the landlord of The Washington. My father had always said you know one of these days on the way home we should pop in and have a drink, but we never did. I remembered this book of the Tidey family and through this I realised they had misspelt Terry’s surname. I couldn’t believe Terry was still there in Belsize Park.
The next time I met my friends at The Washington I paid with my card and showed Terry my name. Terry said it was the first time he had met another Tidey at his pub and it was particularly special to us both as his wife is also called Kate. Terry explained his story and how he had discovered his great, great, great grandfather had developed the area (including the pub) which I hadn’t realised was also known as ‘Tidy Town’. It was an amazing story and fascinating to learn some of the history of Belsize Park. It would be wonderful to be related to Daniel Tidey – I always felt very much at home around both Kensington and Belsize Park.
My great grandfather originally came from Nutfield in Surrey and his brother lived in Sussex near to the village of Washington, so I think it’s very likely we are related. It was Terry who informed me why the pub was named The Washington (certainly not after the first president of the United States).
It wasn’t that long after I met Terry that he had lost The Washington and had to take over a pub in Kensington. It was there that Terry showed me the scroll with the family tree. I was going to return to meet with him again as Terry had offered to copy the document, but if I recall correctly the next time I went he was no longer there. I discovered a few years later he was transferred back to retake the management of The Washington once again but by this time I had moved to Wales. I was so pleased as Terry really loved The Washington in Belsize.
Katie Tidey, June 2020
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BELSIZE Remembered is available from Daunt Books, Waterstone's Hampstead and from Amazon.
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