Most decimated area for lost pubs

[bcfczuluarmy]

After a trip to http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/areas/salford-central/greater-manchester/ to meet my new employers on the way home I saw a boarded pub The Albert Vaults (http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/72305/) , I had spotted a couple one being The Crown Hotel (http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/13128/) close by between hotel I stayed at and the office but thought little of it as looked older conversions.

Interested to see if it was closed I searched and to my amasement saw nearly all the pubs in this area shut. Is this the worst decimation of pubs out there in anyone area?

Guess with Manchester City Centre on it's doorstep that this may be a reason why so many pubs lost as nobody thinks of Salford as a place really in city Centre terms.

[oldboots]

I think there are very many places where the pub population has been more than decimated, however that aside Stockport is particularly noted for closures above 10% as is Stoke. I read an article recently about another place in the north west, possibly Burnley, that has lost 30-40% of its pubs in recent months. London is also notorious for pub closures mainly based on property prices.

The general trend now seems to be for suburban pubs to close rather than rural or city/town centre ones. Rural and central pubs seem to have already reduced down to a more stable number as owners have cashed in on property prices or the business has failed for one reason or another. We all know the range of reasons; social changes, demographics, smoking ban, red tape, recession, property prices and health facists. The other driver is probably the debt mountain of Punch/Enterprise which doesn't have a geographical or sociological basis but simply the need to generate enough money to pay the interest.

Around Leeds and York it's estate pubs that are going, the city centres are expanding pub-wise; in the market towns it's the edge of town pubs especially as conversions to supermarkets, most of the rural ones are already either restaurants or houses.

[Aqualung]

Just tick the Closed Pubs option for E5, E2 or E8 in London to view the carnage there. The vast majority of them belonged to the the Big Six brewers so by and large the best you could expect was a rank pint of Charrington's IPA or later Ind Coope Burton Ale.
Ironically the areas are going up market so there are options there now, not cheap and mostly trendy.

[AlanH]

After a trip to http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/areas/salford-central/greater-manchester/ to meet my new employers on the way home I saw a boarded pub The Albert Vaults (http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/72305/) , I had spotted a couple one being The Crown Hotel (http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/13128/) close by between hotel I stayed at and the office but thought little of it as looked older conversions.

Interested to see if it was closed I searched and to my amasement saw nearly all the pubs in this area shut. Is this the worst decimation of pubs out there in anyone area?

Guess with Manchester City Centre on it's doorstep that this may be a reason why so many pubs lost as nobody thinks of Salford as a place really in city Centre terms.


The area of worst decimation depends on the timescale and the size of the area chosen. Salford in general, and the area of Chapel Street in particular must be contenders. Virtually all the pubs on our old Chapel Street crawl have gone over the last 30 years. Hundreds of pubs in Salford have vanished in the same period. In more recent years, a few more have gone, but not on the same scale as there were not that many left to close!
Other areas, like nearby Hulme, have lost most of the original pubs, plus many of the "new" estate replacement pubs now also closed.

[Al 10000]

Take a look at the Radford area of Nottingham,it has lost loads of pubs since the early 90s

This is a list of a typical crawl we did,not always in the same order.

Royal George, Home Ales closed
Red Lion, Whitbread, now Organ Grinder, Open
Rose and Crown, HOme Ales, closed
Generous Briton, Shipstones, closed
Sir Walter Raleigh, Ansells, closed
Albion Inn, Home Ales, closed
Cricketers, Shipstones, closed
Queen Hotel, Home Ales, closed
Forest Inn, Shipstones, closed
Marquis of Waterford, Whitbread, closed
Spread Eagle, Home Ales, closed
Alma, Shipstones, closed
Penny Farthing (now Colonel Burnaby) Whitbread Open
Moulders Arms, Shipstones, closed
Running Horse, Shipstones, closed

This was a fairly regular crawl i did with my mates in the early 80s through to the late 80s,
i still did the crawl with my wife up untill the early 90s then the pubs gradully started to close down.

Such a shame,it took less than 10 minutes to walk from the Alma to the Running Horse to watch a live band
and get a late drink.

Those were the days.

[london calling]

Like Oldboots I have noticed the suburbs of West London are where the pubs are closing.Southall and Hounslow have been decimated but it may be a cultural reason.I think its a shift in drinking habits as the young'uns seem to favour town centres rather than local pubs.Feltham seems to have lost a lot of pubs as well.

[aleandhearty]

Southall and Hounslow have been decimated but it may be a cultural reason.

I used to live in Southall in the late eighties and many of the pubs seemed barely viable even back then. My recollection is most of them were pretty dire. However, one of the better ones, on the High Street, was run by Sikhs and used to serve pretty decent Indian bar snacks. Rather unusual at the time.

[london calling]

I used to live in Southall in the late eighties and many of the pubs seemed barely viable even back then. My recollection is most of them were pretty dire. However, one of the better ones, on the High Street, was run by Sikhs and used to serve pretty decent Indian bar snacks. Rather unusual at the time.
I was once in a the Glassy Junction an Indian pub in Southall which took rupees. No longer as it closed a few years ago.

[Aqualung]

A place you may not associate with closed pubs is Henley-on-Thames.
I came across an old list of Brakspear pubs from the 1970s and it includes a map of central Henley showing 18 pubs. A full ten of these have gone :-

Bear, Bell Street
King's Arms, Market Place
Little White Hart, Riverside
Oddfellows Arms, Greys Road
Old White Hart, Hart Street
Red Cross, New Street
Rose and Crown, New Street
Royal Hotel, (Thames Side?)
Wheatsheaf, Reading Road
Ye Lion, Friday Street

You can add to this three on the outskirts,

Jolly Waterman, Reading Road
Sun, Northfield End
Old White Horse, Northfield End

The only one of these I didn't know at all was Ye Lion as it closed down before I got around to visiting.
The one called the Beer Tree was the Queen's Head, a perfectly decent town boozer.

Needless to say, numerous others have gone, a couple across the river in Remenham for example and lots of old farmworker's pubs out in the middle of nowhere.

Strangely two in Hurley have had slight renaming. The Black Boy is the Black Boys and the Red Lion is the Red Lyon.

[Tris39]

It depends on how big the area is of course and the timescale; many pubs closed long before anyone alive today was born and of course pubs have been closing since they were invented.

To get a view from the mid-19th century to the present in London's Tower Hamlets (E1, E14) for example, have a look at this:

http://www.pubology.co.uk/indexes/e1.html

http://www.pubology.co.uk/indexes/e14.html

[Aqualung]

It depends on how big the area is of course and the timescale; many pubs closed long before anyone alive today was born and of course pubs have been closing since they were invented.

To get a view from the mid-19th century to the present in London's Tower Hamlets (E1, E14) for example, have a look at this:

http://www.pubology.co.uk/indexes/e1.html

http://www.pubology.co.uk/indexes/e14.html

The centre of Henley is much smaller than any London Borough. The list I discovered is from the 1970s. I notice that many of the closed pubs from my list and others with an unknown closure date seem to have been added recently together with pictures of their current incarnation.

I assume that the Royal Hotel which was near the river West of the station has not been added because the building has been demolished.

The single Courage pub in Henley (the Dukes Head) has also gone.

[oldboots]

another contender: http://www.llanellistar.co.uk/Number-pubs-closing-Llanelli-worrying-claims/story-21184544-detail/story.html

[rpadam]

Eye Town (http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/areas/eye-town/suffolk/) must be a contender...

[sheffield hatter]

Eye Town (http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/areas/eye-town/suffolk/) must be a contender...

Also in Suffolk, I'm afraid Wickham Market (http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/areas/wickham-market/suffolk/) tops that. The last pub in the town (http://whatpub.com/pubs/SUF/1013/george-wickham-market) was destroyed by fire, though it is hoped it can be rebuilt.

[bcfczuluarmy]

FFS if I lived in either Eye Town or Wickham Market I'd move away or open a pub. How can one live in a location with no pubs?

[Strongers]

FFS if I lived in either Eye Town or Wickham Market I'd move away or open a pub. How can one live in a location with no pubs?

I agree... I certainly wouldn't get on with my neighbours!

[bcfczuluarmy]

Ipswich doesn't fair too well http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/areas/ipswich-central/suffolk/ in centre and docks [http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/areas/ipswich-dock/suffolk/

[Alesonly]

The area of Heartford road from Seven Sisters Tottenham High road Angel Road Upper Edmonton Lower Edmonton Ponders End Brimsdown Enfield Wash and Waltham cross this covers approx 8 Miles of high road back in the 70s there were well over 40 pubs in this section now there's about 8 and Three New Spoons. :eek:

[Aqualung]

The area of Heartford road from Seven Sisters Tottenham High road Angel Road Upper Edmonton Lower Edmonton Ponders End Brimsdown Enfield Wash and Waltham cross this covers approx 8 Miles of high road back in the 70s there were well over 40 pubs in this section now there's about 8 and Three New Spoons. :eek:

The Tottenham area has also seen seven Spoons closed down!