Trailblazer for the trade by RICHARD MOLLOY
‘God I bloody hate that name,’ says Geetie, pointing at the floor. ‘Sorry, what?’ I reply, a little startled. ‘Manhole cover. Why is it a manhole cover? That means I can’t go down there!’ “Do you want to go down there?” I ask, recovering a little. “No, but that’s not the point. Why are things always named after men?” This was the opening exchange of my meeting with Geetie Singh-Watson MBE at the start of my guided tour of her 17thcentury Devon pub. Despite the chilly walk there, I was suddenly feeling extremely male. Geetie is passionate about pubs and the environment. Her MBE for services to the organic pub trade was awarded back in 2009 – a decade before most of us even realised how damaging plastic straws are. She could easily and correctly be described as the source of the organic pub
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movement, opening the world’s first certifiedorganic pub, The Duke of Cambridge in Islington, in 1998. Geetie engages and educates on all things environmental with a confidence drawn from upbringing, experience and endeavour. It clearly frustrates her that it has taken this long for governments to act: “I grew up on a commune in the Midlands in the 1970s. We did it all – we were recycling, we were organic; we thought about how much we drove. The information was there, it just wasn’t being discussed.” Her latest venture, The Bull Inn in Totnes, is a stripped-back, eclectic joy. Upcycled furniture-finds and donations mix with subtle lighting. Bare lath and plaster walls somehow
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