On this Day 1974: Esperanto Boozer in Stoke-On-Trent

OTD, January 7th 1974…

ATV Today’s Peter Green visited the Esperanto pub, ‘La Verde Stelo’  – The Green Star – at Smallthorne in Stoke on Trent.

Peter speaks with Esparanto speaking drinkers inside the pub including Horace Barks and the Mayor of Stoke on Trent, Arthur Cotton, who is also the pub’s licensee. The conversation concerns the sort of people who go to his pub.

Green also talks to Alderman Horace Barks – former Mayor of Stoke on Trent (1950-51) – who was one of the founders of the Esperanto centre in the city. The pub includes a bust of L.L. Zamenhof, a Polish ophthalmologist who published the first book detailing Esparanto, the footage also shows a Stoke-on-Trent street sign, ‘Esparanto Way’.

The Green Star pub continues to trade in 2025 as a local community bar.