Closing Time

Hearing the bad news that The Chimneys in Willington is set to shut later this month got me thinking about how many boozers have bitten the dust in two years.

Mudgie’s excellent closed pubs blog highlights just how bad the problem is and how much history has been lost…

If current ratios are to believed then, bearing in mind I have been blogging for around two years, around half of the 432 boozers and clubs I’ve visited should have bitten the dust.

However, the “good news” is that only six (to my knowledge) have fallen by the wayside.

And even one of those, The Weighbridge Inn in Burton is making a comeback under the auspices of Muirhouse Brewery so, it’s only five.

Of course, clearly the pub industry is under the cosh and pubs are evolving but it’s not all bad news although it is hard to tell a pattern beyond big pubcos cutting costs.

Take The Chimneys for example; a former social club under the shadows of the huge cooling towers that dominate the skyline it had a good group of punters when I visited in May and seemed close enough to chimney pots to survive.

The Rose And Crown in Chellaston was under the cosh from Lidl for about two years and eventually Marston’s and the local council decided they would ignore a residents action group and build a Lidl on the A514 to support the burgeoning supermarket scene which has a Tesco/Co-Op and Aldi within a two minutes car drive!

The Old Cottage Tavern was a case of Tadcaster Brewery disposing of their boozers and this was one of the last to go, which was a pity as the boozer sold great beer

and was a real backstreet classic.

Olde Royal Oak was in the market place in central Burton and, to be honest, served average beer, when I visited. With an ever shrinking market then maybe the clientele weren’t there but, once again, it was owned by one of the big boys.

The Tollgate Tap At the Post House in central Derby arrived in a blaze of publicity as venue selling lots of food and drink and Tollgate Brewery were in the mix.  Less than 12 months later the concept was finished, which was a shame but maybe its location wasn’t quite right.

Finally, The Weighbridge Inn has closed twice so the portents aren’t good for this Micropub that hasn’t been open that long.  Muirhouse Brewery are the latest to try and make a go of it and I wish them every success but tucked away on a car park near to the station means you are competing against some classic Burton pubs nearby.

No doubt more will fall by the wayside but plenty are keeping their heads above water at present.