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Tanglewood

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Anyone know how many pubs,  next to or within within a 10 minute stroll from the canal have closed in the last couple of years?  On my local stretch of the GU the Carpenters Arms at Slapton closed last October and the White Lion at Marsworth closed a few years back?  

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I'm sure someone will know. From that total should we deduct pubs which have reopened in that time, such as the Red Lion at Cropredy; and does a pub such as The Bridge at Napton, which probably closed, reopened and closed again at least twice during that time period, count double?

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Well they reckon about 20 pubs a month are closing down at the moment. Or that may be a week. 

And they were saying on the bbc the other day that coffee shops are proliferating so fast  they are on the cusp of outnumbering pubs. 

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3 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Well they reckon about 20 pubs a month are closing down at the moment. Or that may be a week. 

And they were saying on the bbc the other day that coffee shops are proliferating so fast  they are on the cusp of outnumbering pubs. 

When did they revert from being "cafés" to being, as they were in the 18th century, "coffee shops"? It's one of those mildly annoying current nomenclatures, like "craft beers".

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I don't drink much coffee..................

popped into the Coopers Arms in Newbury yesterday. Been in before but sometime ago. What a lovely unspoilt aged pub it is. Arkels Ale. Very nice and £3.70 a pint, not the cheapest but not the dearest. Spotlessly clean. Only downside two tellys running on different channels. No telly is better.

3 minutes ago, Athy said:

When did they revert from being "cafés" to being, as they were in the 18th century, "coffee shops"? It's one of those mildly annoying current nomenclatures, like "craft beers".

What is a craft beer? Is it different from beer? 

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6 minutes ago, Athy said:

When did they revert from being "cafés" to being, as they were in the 18th century, "coffee shops"? It's one of those mildly annoying current nomenclatures, like "craft beers".

I think it enables one to differentiate between an establishment that will serve you a skinny caramel macchiato and one that provides the Belly Buster Breakfast.

 

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18 minutes ago, Athy said:

When did they revert from being "cafés" to being, as they were in the 18th century, "coffee shops"? It's one of those mildly annoying current nomenclatures, like "craft beers".

I don't think today's coffee shops are anything like the coffeehouses of the 17th and 18th century!

Edited by Mike Todd
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39 minutes ago, Tanglewood said:

Anyone know how many pubs,  next to or within within a 10 minute stroll from the canal have closed in the last couple of years?  On my local stretch of the GU the Carpenters Arms at Slapton closed last October and the White Lion at Marsworth closed a few years back?  

Its quite a lot sadly. Ask amongst the people you know how many visit farcebook daily and how many visit a pub? I had to travel past a long line of boats night before last at Barton turns and walk back 600 yards to viist the almost empty pub. Yesterday the moorings at Fradley were full but not many boaters in  the pub. Perhaps CART should police the towpath and kick anyone off moorings within a mile of any pub to let those of us have somewhere to moor that support them? I am not going to a pub today hence mooring in the middle of nowhere and not taking up valuable vm or pub mooring locations.

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16 minutes ago, carlt said:

I think it enables one to differentiate between an establishment that will serve you a skinny caramel macchiato and one that provides the Belly Buster Breakfast.

 

Very good. It's still a café though, is it not? I shall avoid the former category, as ever since boyhood I have hated the skin which forms on milky coffee.

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The K&A has lost two of its best boaters pubs in the last year or so, the Cross Keys at Bedwyn and the famous Barge Inn at Honey Street, both at the hands of the same "property developer". In both cases locals are fighting a battle to get them back but the evil property developer has sold one back to himself with a "must never be a pub again" covenant introduced.

I was reading the North East Camra magazine in a little North West micropub last night and saw that Nortumberland council has turned down a request to turn a "failed" pub into a house on the grounds that the pub was deliberately run down by the owners, a glimmer of hope.

.................Dave

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2 minutes ago, dmr said:

The K&A has lost two of its best boaters pubs in the last year or so, the Cross Keys at Bedwyn and the famous Barge Inn at Honey Street, both at the hands of the same "property developer". In both cases locals are fighting a battle to get them back but the evil property developer has sold one back to himself with a "must never be a pub again" covenant introduced.

I was reading the North East Camra magazine in a little North West micropub last night and saw that Nortumberland council has turned down a request to turn a "failed" pub into a house on the grounds that the pub was deliberately run down by the owners, a glimmer of hope.

.................Dave

Much of  this problem I am afraid is down to Joe Public. Visiting a village pub only on sunny summer weekends and never in the week is why pubs are now failing. Boaters are a prime example as many think there is a season and lay the boat up for months in  the winter and pub overheads are higher winter than summer and do not evaporate simply because the uk population hibernate. Pubs will continue to close at an alarming rate for a long time into the future just like village petrol stations,shops, butchers have done due to not  being used then everyone will moan there is only Wetherspoons and Toby carvery left!!

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6 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Much of  this problem I am afraid is down to Joe Public. Visiting a village pub only on sunny summer weekends and never in the week is why pubs are now failing. Boaters are a prime example as many think there is a season and lay the boat up for months in  the winter and pub overheads are higher winter than summer and do not evaporate simply because the uk population hibernate. Pubs will continue to close at an alarming rate for a long time into the future just like village petrol stations,shops, butchers have done due to not  being used then everyone will moan there is only Wetherspoons and Toby carvery left!!

And the government constantly telling us not to drink is not helping. I'm moored in Chester just now, a very short walk from two pubs that are between busy and very busy every night of the week so its not all bad news, though the really busy one recently survived an attack from a property developer (an organisation called CaRT). 

The K&A is different as both the pubs were potentially successful pubs. In the posh south many pubs are worth much more as a huge house than as a pub so bad businessmen buy them and run them into the ground before requesting a change of use (first to another business, then to a house, cus that's the loophole).

...............Dave

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28 minutes ago, dmr said:

The K&A has lost two of its best boaters pubs in the last year or so, the Cross Keys at Bedwyn and the famous Barge Inn at Honey Street, both at the hands of the same "property developer". In both cases locals are fighting a battle to get them back but the evil property developer has sold one back to himself with a "must never be a pub again" covenant introduced.

I was reading the North East Camra magazine in a little North West micropub last night and saw that Nortumberland council has turned down a request to turn a "failed" pub into a house on the grounds that the pub was deliberately run down by the owners, a glimmer of hope.

.................Dave

I think the Cross Keys went some time ago and became an Art Shop or summat. The 'other' pub in Great Bedwyn is not a pub but a restaurant that happens to have a bar, this, probably to the annoyance of the licensee, attracts drinkers as well as foodies. This particular drinker only had one visit and one pint at nearly £5 a pint. Sad really. Hope he makes lots of money for himself. 

We passed passed the Barge a couple of Months ago. Thought it was owned by Italian orientated owners now. I agree it certainly isn't the same as it was ten plus years ago. Wasn't it bought by locals at one time who made a righthas of it. It had great things going for it, caravan/campsite etc. 

 

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1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

Its quite a lot sadly. Ask amongst the people you know how many visit farcebook daily and how many visit a pub? I had to travel past a long line of boats night before last at Barton turns and walk back 600 yards to viist the almost empty pub. Yesterday the moorings at Fradley were full but not many boaters in  the pub. Perhaps CART should police the towpath and kick anyone off moorings within a mile of any pub to let those of us have somewhere to moor that support them? I am not going to a pub today hence mooring in the middle of nowhere and not taking up valuable vm or pub mooring locations.

This is happening all over. The Folly at Napton is another example. Very busy moorings all winter but very few in the pub. These are all liveaboards or owned boats as the tourists are only just arriving.

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4 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

This is happening all over. The Folly at Napton is another example. Very busy moorings all winter but very few in the pub. These are all liveaboards or owned boats as the tourists are only just arriving.

That's another on the list of pubs which closed down but then reopened - though more than 2 years ago in this case.

I have never seen "very few" in there during our (usually early evening) visits over the last few years. It appears to be thriving, and many of the customers arrive by car, so it's not used just by boaters. What it does not have, of course, is passing road trade.

 

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1 minute ago, Athy said:

That's another on the list of pubs which closed down but then reopened - though more than 2 years ago in this case.

I have never seen "very few" in there during our (usually early evening) visits over the last few years. It appears to be thriving, and many of the customers arrive by car, so it's not used just by boaters. What it does not have, of course, is passing road trade.

 

Is it realy busy on a tuesday evening 7 pm on a rainy day in january?

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47 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

I think the Cross Keys went some time ago and became an Art Shop or summat. The 'other' pub in Great Bedwyn is not a pub but a restaurant that happens to have a bar, this, probably to the annoyance of the licensee, attracts drinkers as well as foodies. This particular drinker only had one visit and one pint at nearly £5 a pint. Sad really. Hope he makes lots of money for himself. 

We passed passed the Barge a couple of Months ago. Thought it was owned by Italian orientated owners now. I agree it certainly isn't the same as it was ten plus years ago. Wasn't it bought by locals at one time who made a righthas of it. It had great things going for it, caravan/campsite etc. 

 

The "Art Gallery that never opens" looks to be part of the plan, the barn extension at the Barge was also going to be an Art Gallery. The Italian couple put the finishing touches to running the place into the ground, still can't decide if they were really new owners or just Henchmen for the evil businessman/owner mentioned earlier. Plans to close/divert public access/right of way to the canal and properly turn the place into an Italian restaurant (serving really bad food if you read trip advisor) were turned down, owner became even more aggressive and seriously assaulted member of staff and also a towpath user. They now appear to have fled the country leaving the place empty. A small group of regulars are looking to form a co-operative to buy the place (an outright purchase this time, the previous community project only had the pub lease so were possibly victims of the owners desire to run the place down).

The second pub at Bedwyn is sometimes a pub (and sometimes closed) but is primarily trying to be an expensive restaurant, it feels like drinkers are welcome but only if the tables are not required for eaters.

And the Flapper in Birmingham is doomed, three of my favourite canal side pubs now gone.

Hope the Holy Inadequate in Stoke is still doing well:D

..............Dave

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6 minutes ago, Athy said:

I don't know. I suggest that you moor there in eight months' time and have a look. :P

Seriously though, is ANY pub really busy at that time, city pubs in business areas excepted?

Yes. My lads pub in Ringwood is always busy with weekend peaks. The pub he ran for ten years in the New forest was MASSIVELY busy in the summer and crap in the winter exept nice weekend days. Many canal side pubs are very very seasonal.

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https://whatpub.com/ lists virtually all the pubs in the UK, and oddly enough can be filtered to only search for closed pubs in an area, if the OP really wants to do the research.  Different pubs have different seasons - our local pub, venue of the annual Disco Sheep Shearing, will probably get a bit busier now that lambing is just about over.

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4 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Much of  this problem I am afraid is down to Joe Public. Visiting a village pub only on sunny summer weekends and never in the week is why pubs are now failing. Boaters are a prime example as many think there is a season and lay the boat up for months in  the winter and pub overheads are higher winter than summer and do not evaporate simply because the uk population hibernate. Pubs will continue to close at an alarming rate for a long time into the future just like village petrol stations,shops, butchers have done due to not  being used then everyone will moan there is only Wetherspoons and Toby carvery left!!

I was at the Salt Barge by the T&M at Marston a few weeks ago. On a Friday night, there were six people in the pub. I don't know how they stay open.

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5 hours ago, dmr said:

The K&A has lost two of its best boaters pubs in the last year or so, the Cross Keys at Bedwyn and the famous Barge Inn at Honey Street, both at the hands of the same "property developer". In both cases locals are fighting a battle to get them back but the evil property developer has sold one back to himself with a "must never be a pub again" covenant introduced.

Ironically though if the locals used the pubs more in the first place they would still be viable businesses and therefore not sold to developers. Too little to late perhaps?

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7 hours ago, dmr said:

he second pub at Bedwyn is sometimes a pub (and sometimes closed) but is primarily trying to be an expensive restaurant, it feels like drinkers are welcome but only if the tables are not required for eaters.

Things are changing, if glacially slowly. The price of a pint has recently been reduced to a round four quid and there is a passable selection of good ales on draft now. Bar is often well populated with boaters and bellringers including Bruce and sue. They even consented to hosting a pub quiz recently so there is hope yet! 

Still not a patch on the cross keys. Too far from the canal. 

Oh and still closed from sunday 3pm to tuesday lunchtime. Huh. 

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