A big man with a big heart to match – that is what anyone would say of Mike McKenna, and his sudden death at just 66 years of age will come as huge shock to generations of Bermondsey people.
For 40 years Mike and his brother Pat have been running the Victoria pub on Pages Walk – the longest running publicans in the area.
This towering figure in the pub and advertising trade was a Bermondsey boy through and through, despite being born in Germany of all places.
His father Jack was in the Coldstream Guards at the time and Mike was born in an army hospital in the Rhine region on 12th March 1958. The family lived in many homes and barracks and he attended three schools in just one year.
Tall like his father, Mike rose to be 6 foot 5, and it was not just in height that the youngster, who grew up in the Guinness Buildings in Snowsfields, rose but in stature too.
An 18-year-old Mike was working as a clerk at a publishing company when he decided to enter the highly competitive world of advertising, eventually getting on the board of the prestigious Saatchi & Saatchi.
In an interview with us just over a year ago Mike said he was not happy with being a mere clerk pushing the post trolley around, so put a folio together and became a copywriter. From this, he went on to work at other advertising agencies, and then Saatchi & Saatchi.
The clerk or post boy was the humblest of beginnings in the advertising world at that time, but Mike, a self-taught copywriter, knew he could make it big with his words.
One time a President of The Creative Circle, which recognises excellence in design and advertising, Mike was part of the Idea Foundation, where he sought to help young talent gain an understanding of this field of work, to get them into a career in the creative industries.
Greg Martin, who was his partner from 1998-2012 in Saatchi & Saatchi and several top London agencies, the art director to his copy writing, said: “Everyone loved Big Mike. He was a brilliant writer and the funniest person I’ve ever known.”
An award-winning copywriter and creative director, he picked up prestigious accolades including the D&AD for campaigns such as the recruitment for nurses into the NHS and an award at Cannes for a multiple sclerosis awareness campaign.
As he was launching his advertising career Mike’s mum, Anne, asked if he could help run The Victoria while the present owners looked for a pub further out of London.
Despite his young age then he was an old hand at the pub game. He had his first taste of pub life when he would ‘bottle-up’ after school for his aunt and uncle, Alice and Fred Bamber, who had The Woolpack on nearby Bermondsey Street.
“I did that from the mid-’60s to the early ’80s,” he told us.
“When they sold The Vic to John and Gilly Routledge,” Mike continued, “I came with the furniture and worked with them as they’d never run a bar in their lives!”
By 1984, the Routledges also had Gilly’s in Wilds Rents and found having two pubs too much, so put The Vic on the market.
“We applied for the pub (without telling anyone) and – to my utter astonishment – Truman’s agreed. But once we had it, I dragged Pat out of the City to run it!” Mike said.
And now, as the legendary pub comes up to its 40th anniversary in the hands of Pat and Trish, you can see that very little has changed in its appearance outside and to a large extent inside too.
It is the fact that this pub has not changed that means it is seen as a hidden gem amidst the large-scale gentrification of Bermondsey.
When we went down to interview Mike at the Vic he was rightly proud of keeping the pub traditional, telling us: “That’s why it has been used in so many TV dramas and adverts. It was in the recent series of The Gold, ‘burnt down’ in the second version of Minder, and seen in London’s Burning, Ashes to Ashes, Waking the Dead, Life on Mars and numerous music videos.
“We’ve served Gordon Jackson, The Chemical Brothers, Liam Gallagher, Craig Charles, Brian Glover, Jim Carter, John Cooper Clarke and Keeley Hawes.
“We also hosted a Gavin Turk art piece and have been the location for many independent films”
More recently the pub was visited by football great Eric Cantona, with a goat on a lead for an advertising shoot during the Euros.
But it was always the customers new and old that mattered most to the McKenna brothers over any celebrity or film shoots.
“We’ve been very lucky in that people still use the pub who were here on our opening night,” he told us.
“Many of the locals we’d grown up with moved away in the ’90s and in their place came a more mixed group, a lot of younger people especially, as Bermondsey became gentrified. They discovered us and our old chums, and we’ve all got on swimmingly ever since.”
Over the decades, that friendly atmosphere has been exported on beanos to Ascot, Epsom, Lingfield, Margate, as well as trips to Calais, Tenerife and Cyprus, plus, innumerable ‘charabancs’ up and down the country following Millwall.
Pat says it was Mike who was always behind the numerous fundraising events that have become a regular feature of The Vic.
In 2022, a reunion was organised where over £1,200 was collected for Breast Cancer Now. It was deemed so successful they continued it each year.
For a family with an army background, Mike’s became instantly touched by the plight of the Ukrainian people, who have been fighting Russia’s full scale invasion since February 2022.
His latest fundraising effort came when he met Dariya Silko, 28, in Bermondsey, whose family fled their Donetsk home back in 2014 following Putin’s earlier invasion of that region. A trustee of Women Fight for Ukraine they have, with Mike’s help, held two Eurovision parties on Bermondsey’s Beer Mile. The money raised goes to buying equipment including body armour for their husbands, brothers and friends on the front lines.
Paul Regan, who worked with Mike organising events for Women Fight for Ukraine, said: “Mike dedicated countless hours, evenings, and weekends to our little charity, pouring his heart and soul into every project, pushing our boundaries and helping us put together some fantastic fundraising events.
“His brilliant mind and infectious enthusiasm were the driving force behind our success. He had a unique ability to turn even the most challenging tasks into exciting opportunities, always offering a unique angle.
“His loss is felt deeply by all of us, but his legacy will live on through the incredible work he helped us accomplish. We will forever be grateful for his friendship and his unwavering support.”
Mike was cruelly taken by what is believed to be a heart attack, on Friday 23rd August, but the family will have to wait for a coroner’s hearing.
He leaves behind not only his brother Pat and nephew Blaine who helps out at the pub, his sister Siobhan, his daughter Eve, son Harry, nephews and nieces, but an extended family in both England and in his mother’s native Ireland.
Laughing, during our trip to see him at the Vic, Mike said: “I’ve hung up my drying cloth and Pat and Trish run the pub now,” but he added that it did not stop him from being found on the other side of the bar drinking with friends.
The customers, both new and old, wouldn’t have had it any other way. And as people gather to raise a parting glass to Mike, the wake is expected to be so large that they might have to hold it initially at his beloved Millwall before heading back to the Victoria.
Simon Hughes, the former MP for the area, paid tribute – telling the paper: “Like many, many others I was very shocked and sad to hear of Mike’s sudden death.
“Mike and Pat and their family have been a really valued part of the Bermondsey community at the great and much loved Vic in Pages Walk for 40 years – and I have been privileged to know them for all of this time.
“The Vic with the McKennas in charge has been one of SE1’s very special pubs of welcome and character, a pleasure and a treasure.
“Also Mick’s internationally recognised work in his day job and career and his volunteer help particularly for Ukraine are other reasons for us all to be so grateful for his character, life and actions.
“I know there will many people wanting to express appreciation and thanks in the Vic and elsewhere in the days and weeks ahead.”
Mike’s funeral is being held at St George’s Cathedral, on Westminster Bridge Road, on Wednesday 25 September at 10am.
Albins funeral home can be contacted for more details.
