Some of Britain’s top cartoonists have banded together to give a Greenwich pub a boost by holding an exhibition of their work.

Martin Rowson of The Guardian, Morten Morland of The Times and Jeremy Banks of the Financial Times will be showing off their cartoons in the Duke of Greenwich on Colomb Street from January 18 to February 1.

Organiser Pete Songi, whose work appears in the Daily Mirror, told The Greenwich Wire that he wanted to brighten up the pub, formerly the Vanbrugh, and bring it more trade.

“There have long been cartoon exhibitions, festivals and events dotted around the country, but not many in London and certainly not in a pub,” he said.

“Martin Rowson, Mark Winter, Jeremy Banks and I had been discussing online about trying to set something up in southeast London or Greenwich as we all live in and around the area. 

The Duke of Greenwich in Monday’s snow. The exhibition starts on January 18. Image: The Greenwich Wire/Pete Songi

“After a drink in a couple of pubs with empty walls we decided to make an approach to the Duke of Greenwich. It has come out of the Covid crisis with a new lick of paint but empty walls and with the need to get more people through the doors. So a win win all round, the cartoonists get a great venue to display their work and the pub gets extra footfall. Luckily Owen the pub manager agreed and a date was set.”

The theme is “pubs and bars near me” – “basically what I do in Google if I’m early to an event” – and Songi said there had been “loads of interest” from other cartoonists in taking part.

Mark Winter XL bully cartoon
Mark Winter’s work will also be featured in the pub. Image: Mark Winter

Steve Bright of The Sun, Dave Brown of The Independent, Guy Venables of Metro and Rebecca Hendin of The Guardian are also involved, as are Rob Murray and Patrick Blower of the Daily Telegraph and Nick Newman of The Times.

The Duke of Greenwich opened in July 2022, four months after the closure of the Vanbrugh. The name is a nod to its historic title, the Duke of Edinburgh.

The pub was at the centre of a long-running planning battle with the freeholder, the Isle of Man-based Hamna Wakaf Ltd, wanting to build a house on land behind its beer garden.

After years of rejections, a planning inspector upheld an appeal from Hamna Wakaf in December 2020. However, no work on the house appears to have taken place since then.

The pub is open from 4-10pm on Tuesdays, noon to 11pm Wednesdays to Saturdays and noon to 9pm on Sundays.