Pubs gone but not forgotten
I've started this thread to allow myself and any others willing to do so to recall memories (in true Real Ale Twats tradition) of recalling great old pubs that have been ruined, mainly by closure.
I would recommend a Title to each post giving either a pub name, a brewery or an area.
Bathams in Surrey? Shurely Shome Mishtake?
This pub was famous back in the day (late 1970s and early 1980s?) for selling beers from the Black Country like Batham's Holden's and Simpkiss. The word was that the owner used to travel up and collect the beers himself. I can only recall the last time I visited when I think it was Burton Bridge rather than Black Country. I've no idea what it's like now but it has re-opened.
Formative Drinking years in Hampshire
This puts me in mind of the Newport Inn, a small Hampshire pub hidden away in the country side, I remember drinking Gales 5X Winter Ale there, the landlord's name was Bernard. Bernard was married to Janet who had taken over the pub from her parents in the early years of the second world war. Apart from new wall paper in the lounge sometime in the 1950s nothing had changed since then. The gents of course was outside although the ladies was an indoor facility just off the lounge.
There was uproar in the pub when it was "ruined" in the early 1980s by the construction of a corridor between the public and the gents, new wallpaper and the moving of the counter back a few inches, most but not all, of the locals eventually got over it. A proper till was installed to replace the drawer previously used.
On Saturday and Sunday nights Janet would play a selection of music hall songs and songs from the shows on the old johanna, while the assembled regulars and visitors from miles away would sing along, naturally it was standing room only and a visit to the gents would require careful consideration of which door to exit through. Many students would visit on these occasions in search of traditional village life, all under about 25 were briefly banned from drinking HSB after an unfortunate vomiting incident in the car park, "you young lads can't take the HSB" was the explanation given. I still bear the scar from falling off my bike after my first gallon of HSB there, so maybe Janet knew what she was talking about.
There was a break to the singsong for a couple of weeks when Janet, who by then would be well into her sixties, ran off with one of the regulars; she returned within a fortnight and the incident was never refered to again. The garden grew more unkempt as the years passed and the rabbits in hutches there slowly died off, and the children's swing got rustier and rustier, but the famous Ploughman's continued. This was the only food sold apart from the usual nuts and crisps, and only at lunchtime; it comprised about 6 ounces of Cheddar, a small cottage loaf, a handful of pickled onions and a dollop of "sweet pickle" (Branston). Butter on request.
The begining of the end came with the closure of Gales brewery and its takeover by Fullers, Bernard had by now passed on to the great taproom in the sky and Janet was losing the use of her legs through illness and old age, she still brought the coal in however by having the sack put on a child's trolley. After her death Fullers shut the pub but who knows maybe one day it will reopen but it won't be the same.
The Little Gem, Aylesford
The Little Gem
Where I had my first pints of, among other things, Old Peculiar, Youngs Winter Warmer, Salisbury Bishops Tipple (do we want another thread for ales gone but not forgotten?), and many others.
I keep hearing rumours that it will re-open now it's been sold, but I'm not holding my breath.