The Railway Hotel was opened in 1851 and licensed originally only to sell beer as landlords the The Three Tuns and The Crown opposed the application to sell spirits.
In 1877 the licensee, Alfred Alexander Cole, created the Blackheath Pandocheion, writing "Whilst fully believing that the partaking of bodily refreshment and pleasant surroundings not only enhances the zest of consumption but ought materially to assist digestion, the process of which requires tranquility of mind, the new proprietor of the Railway Hotel...has therefore fitted up his premises in an elaborate style (Jacobean) as luxurious as it is unique in England and adopted for it the euphonious Greek title Pandocheion".
The Pandy as it quickly became known did not last long, although the diminutive was used until the 1930s and in 1893 the proprietor stripped out all ther Jacobean fitments and installed a new staircase and dining room on the first floor.
All vestiges of its Victorian origins were removed in the 1950s when Taylor Walker removed the Doric porch and columns from the front.
