Pub closures in Newport & Cardiff

Earlier this year, the Office of National Statistics published "Economies of Ale", changes in the UK pubs and bars sector 2001-2019. What was noticeable about this report was the claim that small pubs and bars have bounced back after 15 years of decline, albeit by 0.4%. This is no doubt to the micropub revolution, however the trend is still downward

Smoking ban introduced in England 2007 so the steady drop happened after that.
Also on this report you can type in your postcode for a look at your local area, Cardiff and Newport areas are below as examples:

Are pub conversions to supermarkets always a bad idea?

Following on from the comments posted yesterday on this article here I'd thought I'd do another story on pub conversions to supermarkets.
Pictured above is the former Lloyds pub on Cambrian Road, Newport. Nothing to do with the faction of Chaverspoon that have the name today, this was a former Ansells pub that was named after a former brewery they took over and closed that stood opposite. Ansells also had their area offices above the pub. Now this was never a great pub, beer quality was appalling and in its final years the place was renamed Jarcals and appealed to the nighttime crowd of drinkers in the 'Port. When it did have real ale, the choice was Ansells Best and for a while Burton and eventually Tetleys, not a great choice and not a great pub. Its not that a pub on this road could not succeed, further up Cambrian Road Chaverspoons opened their first pub in Wales and the John Wallace Linton is still there to this day, with their indifferent staff being rude to customers and no doubt serving piss-poor beer etc. The blame for the failure of this pub was down to the brewery and later the pubco.

The building that was Lloyds today has been converted into a Tesco Express, so the beer quality and the range has improved drastically, along with the clientele. It only became a pub in the 1980s so no big loss to Newport. A not very good pub with poor quality beer and a limited range has been swapped for a shop and off-licence with a far better range of products - the consumer wins all around!

Below is the picture from Google Streetview, the building is in the process of being converted into a Tesco Express.

View Larger Map

Every week a pub is converted to a supermarket

Above: The Black Horse,Somerton, Newport which is to become a Tesco Express

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, has today urged the Government to change planning laws which are currently allowing the nation’s major supermarket chains and developers an easy route to ripping the hearts out of small communities, with new research showing that since January 2010, over 200 pubs across Britain have been converted into supermarket convenience stores.

CAMRA has been lobbying hard in recent years to persuade the Government to close arcane planning law loopholes in England and Wales which are allowing pubs - amenities which provide a community centre and a managed environment to consume alcohol - to be demolished or converted without the need for planning permission, and therefore rendering communities powerless in the fight to save their locals.

Based on a national pub conversion survey carried out by its members, CAMRA has found that since the beginning of 2010, a staggering 130 pubs have been converted into convenience stores by supermarket giant Tesco, and 22 by Sainsbury’s, with a further 54 by other companies such as The Co-Operative, Asda and Costcutter.

With a further 45 pubs reported to be under threat of conversion across Britain at present, Mike Benner, CAMRA Chief Executive, said:

‘Weak and misguided planning laws and the predatory acquisition of valued pub sites by large supermarket chains, coupled with the willingness of pub owners to cash-in and sell for development, are some of the biggest threats to the future of Britain’s social fabric. For years, large supermarket chains have shown a disregard for the wellbeing of local communities, gutting much-loved former pubs in areas already bursting with supermarket stores.

‘Pubs are being targeted for development by supermarket chains due to non-existent planning controls allowing supermarkets to ride roughshod over the wishes of the local community. At a time when 18 pubs are closing every week this is damaging a great British institution. Unless action is taken by the Government to address obvious loopholes in planning legislation, more local communities will be forced to give up their local pub without a fight, and seeing the pub signs of Red Lions and Royal Oaks being corporately graffitied over by supermarket empires will become an all too common sight.’

John Denham, MP for Southampton Itchen, said:

‘Residents across the country are feeling powerless to intervene as local community pubs are being turned into convenience stores.

‘The Castle, a pub in my own constituency in Southampton, is the latest in a line of pubs being sold by large pub company Enterprise Inns to the giant supermarket chain Tesco. CAMRA’s new figures show that this kind of behaviour is rife around the country as around 1 pub a week is converted into a convenience store.

‘The Government needs to wake up to this looming crisis in the pub industry and look not only at planning laws that allow pubs to be converted so easily, but also at the cosy relationship between national retailers and large pub companies that so often leave local communities feeling left out in the cold.’

The Black Horse pub in Somerton, Newport which is pictured in this article is a former Ansells pub and planning permission was originally refused to demolish this pub and build a Tesco on the site. However the building has since been vandalised with roofing material removed - it seems Tesco are prepared to wait until this building has to be demolished for safety reasons rather than work with the existing structure.

Pub closures reach 18 a week

New figures show that 18 pubs now close across the nation each week, up from 12 per week (September 2011 – March 2012).


- Debate on the beer duty escalator takes place in Parliament today as further figures show how over 5800 pubs have permanently closed since the beer duty escalator was introduced in 2008.

Published before today’s major Parliamentary debate on the beer duty escalator, CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, has revealed how Britain’s pub closure rate has increased to 18 a week, with over 450 pubs across the country having been lost since March.

The latest CGA-CAMRA Pub Tracker, covering the period of March-September 2012, reports an increase on previous findings (12 per week for the period September 2011 – March 2012), showing the extent to which Britain’s community pubs are ‘struggling against the burden of taxation, low supermarket pricing and poor consumer confidence.’

With Britain’s pub closure rate now back on the increase, CAMRA has warned that the industry is in vital need of a successful outcome at today’s Parliamentary debate calling for a review of the social and economic impact of the beer duty escalator before Budget 2013. Since the beer duty escalator was introduced in 2008 - a system which penalises Britain’s beer drinkers by automatically increasing duty by 2% above inflation every year - CAMRA reports that over 5,800 pubs have closed. Beer sales also continue to plummet, with the British Beer and Pub Association last week reporting that UK beer sales have fallen by 5.6% from July – September alone.

In late September the CAMRA-backed e-petition calling for the abandonment of the beer duty escalator became the twelfth of its kind to reach the 100,000 signature landmark. This has triggered a Parliamentary debate ahead of which over 3,000 beer drinkers have spoken out by urging their local MP to attend.
Speaking before this milestone debate for the beer and pub industry, Mike Benner, CAMRA Chief Executive, said:

‘Surpassing the 100,000 signatures required to trigger a debate was a major consumer-led campaigning success, but the real hard work begins now.
‘For too long, Britain’s beer drinkers have been forced to endure inflation busting rates of tax on their pint, while the Treasury’s own projections show that these hikes will fail to bring in any additional revenue over the next three years.

‘As today’s pub closure figures show, the future of Britain’s valued community pubs remains in jeopardy. With pubs finding it ever harder to maintain consistent footfall at a time when prices are ever increasing, it is only hoped that Parliament will today take the first steps by voting to review punitive taxation policies on Britain’s National Drink.’
Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:
‘An escalator means consistent tax hikes on alcohol, which hits those on low and middle incomes hardest. What's more, high taxes mean we run the risk of making black market booze even more profitable. This leaves us with a yawning tax gap, and again it's hard-pressed families making up the shortfall. To close the gap, and to give people a break, the Government must take on board CAMRA's proposal to scrap the duty escalator so a pint of beer doesn't cost taxpayers the earth.’

Bassett Pub Company expands whilst others decline

The South Wales-based JW Bassett Pub Company have announced a ninth pub to their estate which already covers pubs from Penarth to Kilburn. The freehold of the former bar YK in Elm Street, Roath, Cardiff has been aquired and the company is planning to revert the late-Victorian pub back to its original name, the Four Elms and to refurbish the pub in the same style as other JWB pubs such as Queen's Vaults and the Pantmawr.
Good to see a pub saved from the developers and not being turned into flats, if any company can make this pub a success its Jon Bassett and his team.

Elsewhere in Cardiff, the Bertram has closed and is now boarded up, the likelihood it will become flats and the Echo reports it. Interview with me in there where I blame the smoking ban and the duty rises as to reasons it closed.  Plus it had been run by Punch who seem to be getting out of the South Wales pub business.

Above: the Bertram, pictured last year

Farewell to (Hereford) Arms

The Hereford Arms in Newport has finally closed for good and is awaiting conversion into flats. The popular pub, situated just off Chepstow Road in Maindee pulled its lasts pints last week and is now boarded up waiting for the inevitable fire to happen or for squatters to take hold . A great shame as this late-Victorian boozer was a popular pub and even had its own smoking solution in the yard at the rear. 

The Hereford Arms also featured in an episode of Torchwood.

The pub was originally owned by local brewers Phillip's and then by Courage and Ushers Brewery. County Estates owned it in recent years and then Alderbourne Limited. None of the recent owners seemed that interested in the pub and it was sold at an auction in London last year in a not-too-well publicised event, ie, ot at the usual pub auction or via one of the usual agents such as Sidney Phillips or Fleurets.

Another Newport pub closure!

12 Pubs a week are closing

BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat covered pub closures today with some facts from CAMRA. It's worth reading the whole piece on Pravda the Beeb as there is a telling comment by one student towards the end:


However, it's unlikely any minimum pricing introduction would substantially reduce the gap between buying a beer in store and buying a pint in a pub.


Kieron Barton, a 21-year-old student from Lancashire, doesn't think it would make a difference.


"I don't really go to pubs at all to be honest. It's not a place you'd want to go," he said. "You just prefer to get drinks at your mate's house."


And why does he prefer drinks at his mate's house? Well no doubt there is the opportunity to smoke around a friends house, something that has been banned from pubs since 2007. Whoops, that was an 'elephant in the room moment.

A minimum price for alcohol as is advocated by the neo-prohibitionists will not stop pub closures, scrapping the duty escalator will help stop the closures though. The industry needs less tax and less legislation passed and, shall we say, a liberalisation of smoking laws to allow a publican and his customers to choose if they want to smoke or not in his pub? That will get people back into pubs, not some artificial price structuring that goes against every principle of the free market economy.

The BBC also report there are 55,000 pubs in the UK, although the latest BBPA figures have that number as 51,500

Onto the pub closures, CAMRA used CGA Strategy to produce a report from September 2011-2012.
- 12 pubs now close across Britain every week – 8 in suburban areas, and 4 in rural areas, with the nation’s high streets showing resistance in the current economic climate.

Altogether 300 community pubs have closed in just 6 months.

Now I've had a look at the Welsh figures and they seem a bit confusing:

Glamorgan 10
Gwent -3
Gwynedd -4
Mid-Glamorgan -2
South Glamorgan -1
West Glamorgan -3
Powys -1
Clwyd -2
Dyfed -12

The data is somewhat confusing as it is by the old county boundaries, not Unitary Authorities as now have in Wales. Also Glamorgan appears to be having 10 new pubs, I think this may just refer to Cardiff, where new openings of cafe and hotel bars may be skewing the data. It still shows a net loss of 18 pubs, most in the predominately rural area of West Wales.

Anyway if you want to do something about pub closures then sign the e-petition and have a look at CAMRA’s official beer tax micro site with information on securing an end to above inflation beer tax increases by the Government.

CAMRA Press Release below, issued today:

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale has today released new national research showing that with over 300 community locals having permanently shut in just 6 months, crippling beer tax increases by the Government continue to threaten the future of traditional pubs. The news comes as over 33,000 consumers have signed a national e-petition in recent weeks to bring an end to above inflation beer tax increases. CAMRA’s research shows 73% of regular pub goers** support a freeze in beer duty.

National research commissioned by CAMRA has found that Britain’s national pub closure rate now stands at 12 pubs per week, and away from Britain’s city centre high streets – where a net loss of just 6 pubs in total has occurred across Britain in 6 months – rural pubs are closing at a net rate of 4 per week, and suburban at 8 per week.

With pubs hit by an inflation-busting 42% increase in beer duty since 2008, CAMRA is continuing to rally beer drinkers to sign an e-petition to call an end to above inflation increases in beer tax, thus giving struggling pubs a degree of respite in the current climate- www.camra.org.uk/saveyourpint. With over 33,000 consumers backing the petition, CAMRA is lobbying to secure 100,000 signatures and force a debate in Parliament on an issue causing great damage to communities across Britain.

Mike Benner, CAMRA Chief Executive, said,

‘Whether situated in a small village, city high street, or on the edge of a housing estate, pubs are so central to our society that whole communities can grow around a particular pub. A threat to the future of traditional pubs is therefore also a threat to countless social groups within Britain that thrive because of their local.


‘Unsustainable beer tax increases by the Government are ripping the heart out of community centres, but with over 33,000 consumers having recently signed the beer tax e-petition, beer drinkers and pub goers are actively voicing their discontent. CAMRA is now campaigning to secure 100,000 signatures, which would force Parliament to debate above inflation rises in beer duty.’

CAMRA has also today released new figures showing the worst hit areas of Britain for pub closures. Breaking down some of the largest counties across the country, targeted figures show how in 6 months (September 2011 – March 2012) an area such as Lancashire has lost 68 pubs, whilst the West Midlands has lost 37.

Pub closures and the smoking ban

There's a great piece over at Velvet Glove Iron Fist as the puritans get together to swap notes on how to denormalise drinking now that smokers have been banned from pubs.

According to Linda Bauld, the smoking ban had "no clear adverse impact on the hospitality industry". And above, using pub closure figures from the British Beer and Pub Association, we can see what "no clear adverse impact" looks like.

Also a good bit about the smoking ban and the rate of heart attacks in Britain.


On a related note, chef Anthony Worrall Thompson has launched an e-petition to call on the Government to reform the smoking ban. If you want to save the pub get over there and sign it now!

More Cardiff Pub closures

View Larger Map

So its farewell then to the Mitre in Riverside, a Brains pub on the corner of Heath Street/Machen Place in Cardiff. Not that I ever went there or was indeed even aware of its existence until this week. Well not entirely, having seen the photograph on Google Maps I now think that I may have visited there some 10/15 years ago but in those days Riverside had plenty of pubs and now there are hardly any in that area. The street-corner local seems to becoming a thin of the past.
The Cardiffian has more on this, together with some figures on Cardiff pub closures collated by me a couple of years ago. Of course the one thing no one wants to mention as the reason for pub closures is the introduction of the smoking ban. When countries such as Germany, Greece and the Netherlands have reformed the law banning smoking to support their bar industries surely it is time for our law-makers to do something to stimulate the pub industry. The French, as usual, have chosen not to amend the law, but just to ignore it, as they do with most of their laws.
Meanwhile, on another planet, Cooking Lager has revealed what can happen to old pubs. A future use for this Riverside pub perhaps?

Welsh Assembly now gives grants to convert pubs to restaurants

Not content with dishing out £250,000 of our money to fake charity Alcohol Concern, the Welsh Assembly has now given a grant of £172,800 to a Mr Mafiz Ali to convert the former Old Rising Sun/Harlequin pub into an Indian restaurant. Just what we need in Newport, another restaurant! The City is full of third-rate Indian restaurants at the moment with hardly any customers, chucking this money at a new venture will do nothing to improve Newport. Still at least the local populations of stray cats and dogs are kept in order!
The Old Rising Sun was sold by Admiral Taverns in 2006 for £300,000 and closed shortly afterwards with the usual 'suspicious fire' taking place. Amazing that so many Newport pubs somehow catch fire just after they close! The spontaneous combustion of recently closed public houses is a fascinating subject which the local police should really take more interest in rather than harrassing innocent citizens.
The Welsh Assembly and their Assembly Beer Group do claim to support our breweries and pubs but with money being thrown at projects such as this you have to wonder where our politicians truly stand?

Lets see some Assembly money being put into supporting our pubs, not encouraging their destruction.

H/T to the South Wales Argus for this story, though they seem to have missed the bit about the Assembly wasting our money

Welsh Assembly Members highlight pub closures in Newport

From Brew Wales

Above: Pictured outside the former Corporation pub in Newport are, left to right, Nick Ramsey AM, Dawn Parry (Conservative Parlimentary Candidate for Newport East) and leader of the Conservatives in the Welsh Assembly, Nick Bourne AM. 

The list of pubs closed since Labour came to power is a large one, with Newport losing more pubs than Cardiff since 1997. Brew Wales have previously highlighted the loses here and more recently here and although recently we have seen a few reopenings, the Engineers in Baneswell and the Carpenters Arms in High Street, the trend is still downward with the Corporation Hotel being given change of use by the local council only last week.

Joint-Chair of the Welsh Assembly Beer Group and Conservative leader in the Welsh Assembly, Nick Bourne AM, today joined up with fellow Assembly Member Nick Ramsey and Newport East Conservative Parliamentary Prospective Candidate Dawn Parry to highlight the pub closure epeidemic that has hit Newport with 45 pub closures in thirteen years of Labour Government.

According to Newport East Conservative PPC Dawn Parry, "The pub is at the heart of the community, when that is gone where are people going to meet? Drinking in a pub is more sociable than drinking at home and we have seen a loss to the communities of Newport East of fantastic old pubs that will never be rebuilt and never open again as pubs. We have seen the destruction of our communities over the past 13 years with pubs and post offices closing in the constituency and the forthcoming general election is a chance for change for the people of Newport"

Elsewhere today, Shadow Communities and Local Government minister, Caroline Spelman said: “Under Labour there has been a surge in alcohol-fuelled violence in our high streets, while local community pubs go to the wall.

“Conservatives will stand up for local community pubs and give residents new rights to protect them, whilst giving police and councils strong powers to tackle the binge drinking violence that ruins our towns at night.”

The Tories also highlighted figures showing there had been a net closure of 3,500 pubs across England since Labour came to power.

Whereas Newport, Cardiff and Monmouthshire have lost around 150 pubs since 1997.

Another Newport pub closure

That's the end of the Corporation, more lately known as just the Corpa, as Newport City Council has granted planning permission for it to be changed into flats. The pub closed late last year and suffered a "suspicious fire" just after new owners had bought the pub from some Pubco. Situated on the corner of Corporation Road and Cromwell Road, the Corpa had a good catchment area but years of neglet by both the brewery who owned this building and the later pub co took its toll. The Corporation was built in 1898 by Hancocks Brewery and featured all the modcons of a late nineteenth century pub, including a skittle alley that was in use until quite recently. The Corpa is currently derelict and joins the nearby King and Black Horse pubs in the sad state of Newport pubs that have closed under this Government.

Pub Closures - North Wales

Some interesting facts from the Daily Post

1,033 pubs in North Wales in 2005
1,005 pubs in North Wales in 2007
956 pubs in North Wales in 2009

A breakdown shows most pubs have closed in the Clwyd South constituency, with 18 of the 137 shut up for good.


The full article is here, about the latest plans from the Bunker, via Health Stazifuhrer Andy Burnham to halve the number of UK smokers to 1 in 10 by 2020 by extending the smoking ban to beer gardens. Yes you read that correctly, the latest headline grabbing scheme from this failing government is to want to ban smoking in beer gardens. Country almost bankrupt and the idiots in 10 Downing Street can only come up with this. Makes the Brew Wales editor want to take up smoking!

Cardiff Pub Closures

From Brew Wales

Following up from the occasional series on pub closures in the Newport, over the weekend the Brew Wales editorial team decided to take a similar look at Cardiff pubs. Needed a list of pubs to begin with, so the 1996 Complete Guide to Cardiff's Pubs was the starting point. This excellent booklet, written by Dave Matthews (Seidr Dai) is still useful today and was a follow-up to an edition published the previous year. Also used was the Cardiff Pubs foldaway booklet published in 2005 plus some local knowledge and of course the South Wales Echo.

Pubs closed since 1996

1. Purple Dragon
2. Angel Tavern
3. Avondale
4. Baltimore Arms
5. Baroness of Windsor (SA Brain)
6. Bel Air Cafe Bar
7. Bird in Hand
8. Bristol Hotel
9. Bulldog Inn
10. Bute Dock
11. Carpenters Arms
12. Comet
13. Crown
14. Crown Hotel
15. Custom House, (SA Brain) demolished
16. Eldon Arms
17. Emporium
18. Gio's Cafe Bar
19. Glendower Hotel, (SA Brain) demolished
20. Global Beer Co
21. Green Parrot
22. Grosvenor
23. Guildhall Tavern, converted to Chinese Restaurant
24. Gws
25. Harvester
26. Horse & Groom
27. Inn on the River, demolished, (SA Brain)
28. Jumpin' Jacks
29. Locomotive
30. Lord Windsor
31. New Addie, was the Moira
32. Moorlands Hotel
33. New Dock Tavern (SA Brain)
34. Old Airport Inn
35. Orange kipper
36. Paddle Steamer
37. Park Vaults
38. Pierhead Cafe Bar
39. Plymouth
40. Potter's Wheel
41. Pump House Tavern
42. Radyr Arms
43. Rat & Carrot
44. Red House
45. Royal Exchange
46. Rumpoles (SA Brain)
47. Ruperra
48. Tredegar Hotel
49. Ty Glas
50. Wells Hotel
51. White Lion
52. Yardarm

Almost the same number of pubs closed in Cardiff from 1996 as in Newport since 1997 comes as a bit of surprise, though Cardiff has a greater population and larger area. This is shown by more pubs being refurbished and changing their names since 1996, ie, more money being spent on the pubs.

Pubs renamed since 1996

1. 42^nd Street – Bar Billibong (SA Brain)
2. Albert – Yard (SA Brain)
3. The Anthonys – Caerau
4. Apollo – Cayo Arms (Marstons)
5. Canal Boat – Blackweir Tavern (SA Brain)
6. Toucan Club – Callaghan's Irish Bar
7. Clancy's – George
8. Cross Inn – Aneurin Bevan (JDW)
9. Exchange – Cornerstone
10. Ferret & His Trouser Leg – Philharmonic
11. Flyhalf and Firkin – Queens Vaults (JW Basset)
12. Four Bars – Dempseys (SA Brain)
13. Leather Bottle – Jug and Bottle
14. Maindy Hotel – North Star
15. Market Tavern – O'Neils
16. Morgans – Buccaneer
17. Mulligans – Kitty Flynns
18. Murrayfield – Grand Slam
19. Newt & Cucumber – Copa
20. New Ely – the End
21. O'Dwyer's Bar – Forester's
22. Pennsylvania – New Penn
23. Poacher's Lodge – Mochyn Du
24. Rose & Crown – Barfly
25. Rosie O'Brien's Pumphouse – Flares
26. Royal Hotel – O'Neils
27. Sam's Bar – Zinc
28. Ship & Pilot – Mischief's Cafe Bar
29. Yellow Kangaroo – Bar YK

Again the pub openings have been more than Newport, though there is still net loss of 29 pubs in 13 years for Cardiff, compared with a net loss of 43 Newport pubs in 12 years.

Pubs Opened Since 1996

1. Central Bar (JDW)
2. Crockerton (JDW)
3. Prince of Wales (JDW)
4. Ernest Willows(JDW)
5. Ivor Davies (JDW)
6. Gatekeeper (JDW)
7. Terra Nova (SA Brain)
8. Salt (SA Brain)
9. Slug and Lettuce
10. Red Cow
11. Y Cadno (Evan Evans)
    
12. 33 Windsor Place (SA Brain)
13. Cardiff Gate
14. Aneurin Bevan (JDW) was Cross Inn, Gabalfa
15. Eli Jenkins (M & B)
    
16. Hemingway
17. Goscombe (Barracuda)
    
18. Great Western (JDW)
19. Inncognito (SA Brain)
20. Varsity (Barracuda)
    
21. Walkabout
22. Watergaurd (Sam Smith's)
23. Gwdihw
    

Admittedly some of those new openings are cafe bars and there are a that may be missed off the above list. Also the new hotel bars have not been included – very few of them are of interest to the average pub goer.

Newport Pub Closures - November update

Part of an occasional series in which the latest pub closures/openings in and around Newport are mentioned.
Errors and omissions accepted, if any readers have anything further to add please put them in the comments section. NB Comment moderation is enabled due to spam.

Photo above is the former King's Arms, Belmont Hill (Enterprise Inns). Currently being converted into Indian restaurant.

Newport Pub Closures since 1997:

1. Simpsons, High St, Closed – empty building
2. Chartist Arms, High St – closed – premises converted into a restaurant
3. Carpenters Arms, High Street – closed – freehold for sale
4. Lloyds, Cambrian Rd, became Jarcals, then Tesco Extra. Beer quality has improved!
5. Breeze, Cambrian Rd, closed, lying empty
6. Newport Brewhouse, Market St, now a nightclub
7. Trout, Market St, became Can-Cans, closed, building derelict
8. Ale House, ex-Sovereign, John Frost Square, closed and demolished
9. Welsh Prince, Commercial St, closed – premises converted into a Thai restaurant. Freehold for sale.
10. Langtons, Charles St, closed – premises auctioned 11.08
11. King William IV, Commercial St, closed – derelict building
12. Scrum Half, Commercial St, closed, retail premises
13. Westgate Hotel, Commercial St, closed, part retail premises
14. Royal Exchange, became Harveys in Pill, Commercial Rd. Closed, building derelict
15. Mariners Hotel, Commercial Rd, closed
16. Welcome Home, Commercial Rd, closed, residential accommodation
17. Black Horse, formerly Celtic Bar/Falcon, Commercial Rd
18. Waterloo Inn, Alexander Rd, closed and re-opened as a restaurant and hotel
19. Cumberland house, Courtybella Tce, - closed -residential
20. Orange Tree, St Michael St, - closed and demolished
21. White Hart, Tredegar St, closed, business unit
22. Old Rising Sun, Malpas Rd, closed, building derelict
23. Pentwyn House, Bettws – closed
24. Chaplins, Caerleon, demolished, residential development
25. Cotton Club, Cambrian rd
26. Three Salmons, Rogerstone, now an Indian Restaurant
27. Jolly Roger, Rogerstone, now an Indian restaurant
28. Old Globe, Rogerstone , now an Indian/Chinese restaurant
29. Dolphin, Dolphin St, Pill, closed residential
30. Seven, was Yates Wine Lodge, converted from the Tredegar Arms, High Street. Closed
31. Victoria, Corporation Rd, closed – converted into restaurant
32. Crown Inn, Albert Avenue, closed
33. Seven Styles, was Lliswerry Hotel, closed and demolished, residential development
34. King, Somerton, closed, awaiting demolition, residential development
35. Black Horse, Somerton, closed, awaiting demolition, Tesco Extra
36. Pullmans, Spytty, demolished, KFC on site
37. New Inn, Bishton, now residential
38. King's Arms Belmont Hill, Enterprise Inns, conversion to Indian restuarant
39. Waterloo, Pill, converted to restaurant and hotel
40. O'Reilleys, Baneswell, became Ryans Bar, then Xit, closed
41. Gladiator, Malpas, closed
42. Merry Miller, Bettws, closed

Pubs closed since last update (July)

43. Angel, Baneswell, closed
44. Corporation, Corporation Road – boarded up, fire damage
45. Carpenters' Arms, Maindee, closed, boarded up, freehold for sale
46. Oddfellows, Baneswell, closed
47. Drover's, Caerleon, closed, boarded up
48. Roman Lodge Hotel, Ponthir Road, - planning permission granted for conversion to residential
49. Griffin, Market St

Under threat

Hereford Arms, Maindee, planning permission applied for residential apartments

New Pub openings since 1997

Dragonfly, Cardiff Rd, M & B

1995 Wetherspoons, became John Wallace Linton, JDW

1999 Godfrey Morgan, Maindee, JDW

2002 Tom Toya Lewis, Commercial St, JDW

Banc, Maindee

Page, High St

2009 Valerie's Bar, Commercial Street

NB Clubs are not counted above, I define a club as somewhere that charges membership or an entrance fee. However the following has opened and is open during the day:

Newport City Lounge, Commercial Street

Reopenings

Friendship, Ringland has become Harveys of Ringland

Hornblower, Commercial St. Admiral Taverns

Engineers Arms, Baneswell, Admiral Taverns

Church House, Pill, Harveys

Maindee Hotel, Maindee, S & N pub enterprises (Freehold for sale though)

Queens Hotel, JDW, was Walkabout

Golden Hart, Cardiff Rd

Globe, Maindee (Enterprise)

Another one bites the dust

It came as a bit of a shock to see the Somerset Arms pub in Abergavenny shut, boarded up and the freehold for sale. I've been using this pub on and off for about 20 years and it was a regular in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide. The 2-bar pub had a thriving trade and served good food. It was also a good community local and even had its own brewery back in the 19th century. The Somerset always supported local breweries and was a rare local outlet for beers from Cwmbran brewery. A sad loss to Abergavenny.

Daley Dozen part 5 - 12 closed pubs

Daley Dozen - an occaisional series devoted to a dozen things in the beer world
Part 5 - 12 closed pubs

Some of the pubs the Brew Wales editor has been in over the years that are no longer there.

1. Cupid's Hill Inn, Grosmont. The legendary Cupid's Hill and equally legendary landlord and undertaker Joe take equal precedence for this once in a lifetime pub. For that I mean you only had to visit this place once for it to be etched into your mind. The pub was a timewarp with settles and table skittles and some really old bottles of an obscure Whitbread beer on the counter. But no one went there for the beer. Cupid's Hill Inn was a cider house with bottles of Westons and one year a wooden cask of perry on the bar, made with pears from the back garden and pressed by Denis Gwatkin. Another year some American tourists turned up at the Inn and asked to see the 'cockpit', Joe took them outside and showed them a hole in the ground, at which the Americans asked where the rest of the aircraft was! Obviously tourists are not familiar with some of the more traditional pub games played on the Monmouthshire/Herefordshire border. When the ancient locals, all sitting around the fireplace on a cold Saturday lunchtime, recanted this story to me, I pointed out that cockfighting had been illegal since the 1820s, “Nay we used to have it 'round 'ere up to the 1950s, in fact we tried the other night to get the cockerels to fight in the pub but they weren't having none of it!” The thought of the police and RSPCA raiding this pub in the early hours of the morning to find the cider-sodden regulars arranging an animal fight sprung to mind. What did close the Inn was the death of the landlord Joe and the former Inn is now a private house.
2. Purple Dragon, Bute Terrace. Cardiff. Having aged 10 years since running this establishment, along with 'Chopper' Charlie, the memory of this bar is still fresh. Decorated in 1970s colours and posters, the Purple Dragon even featured a smoke breathing dragon above the front door. 3 real ales were on – Brains SA, Fullers London Pride and a guest, all served in unique over-sized pint glasses. The Purple Dragon was a rare free house for the centre of Cardiff and featured occasional bands and barbecues. All the food served was guaranteed GM free – well it was all bought in from Iceland across the road! But what really made this pub stand out was that it was a pioneer for less strict licensing laws. It was not unusual to see customers leaving during daylight hours, having enjoyed the interesting guest beers throughout the night. The Brew Wales editor even left the pub early one morning, went to Cardiff airport to fly to Reykjavik for a day trip (sweet & sour haddock in the local Chinese is recommended) and was back behind the bar for 2230! Entertainment in the bar was provided by the sadly short-lived Live TV, broadcast from the Daily Mirror offices in Canary Wharf. With high-class programmes such as Topless Darts, the Weather in Norwegian and the unforgettable News Bunny, the Purple Dragon did manage to acquire a certain class of customer who now frequent the chav-palaces of central Cardiff. Some customers even fished in the Dock Feeder that ran alongside the pub, one staff member even barbecued an unfortunate fish caught in that watercourse and suffered the effects the next day. On the bright side, it is quicker to park and open the front door of a bubble car when driving around Cardiff with food poisoning than another car door! Anyway the Purple Dragon was sold together with the hotel above and Mr Malkovich and his partners did not like the idea of a pub and changed it to a hotel bar without the real ale. Recently the Big Sleep Hotel has even got rid of its ground floor bar. A sad loss to a short-lived but fun bar.
3. Rossetti, St John's Wood, London. One of the first places the Brew Wales editor tried Fullers beers, the Rossetti was primarily a restaurant but was owned by the London brewers. Seem to remember it was a bit of an odd design for a pub – sort of Frank Lloyd Wright meets a gastropub. The pub was very popular with members of North London CAMRA and the landlord, who was Italian, insisted on showing the branch members around the cellar after a Pub of the Year or similar award. The cellar was the cleanest and most immaculate I have ever seen, it was also large, the 1960s building had been built with a cellar fitted with a lift for casks and had plenty of headroom. The only complaint from the landlord was that Fullers had stopped supplying ESB in 36-gallon barrels! He had to do with 18-gallon kils instead and they made twice as much work. The Rossetti was sold for redevelopment and flats were built on the site.
4. Ale House, Newport. Steve 'Skinnner' Davidson, from the Hornblower, took over the Sovereign Bar in John Frost Square and changed it into the Alehouse installing real ales on gravity and handpump. Unfortunately the first manager put into the pub was not that good and the beer quality dropped off with a resulting loss in customers. Another manager and a replacement of the beer lines that the previous manager had been unable/unwilling to clean resulted in an improvement but the siting of the pub did not help, at the entrance to the Kingsway shopping centre. At one CAMRA meeting, held in the troglodytical basement of the pub, the attendees from across the UK had problems finding the Ale House as it was in a corner of John Frost Square, Tourist Information were unable to help as the teutonic teetoatal matriarch who ruled the Newport office refused to tell anyone where a pub was! Still the Alehouse had a good following of regulars and the downstairs bar (there was also an upstairs one) became popular due to the restrictions of the licensing laws. Unfortunately the Ale House shut shortly after Skinner was divorced and never reopened as a pub, converting to a retail unit, a DVD shop, before finally being demolished in the attempted redevelopment of Newport City Centre. At the time of writing the building plot is empty.

5. Green Meadow, Waterloo, Machen, Mid-Glamorgan. This was an historic building, the undisputed birthplace of Chartist, Doctor and cremation pioneer William Price. Naturally CADW, responsible for protecting historic buildings in Wales refused to list this 17^th Century former farmhouse and it was demolished. There were plenty of rumours as to why CADW refused to protect this part of Wales' heritage, one of them mentioned that Whitbread Property plc, who sold the pub to Discovery Inns, were by a remarkable coincidence sharing the same office building, Brunel House in Cardiff, as CADW! Allegations of rolled up trouser legs and funny handshakes in the lifts abounded as attempts to save this community pub continued, all to no avail in the end. There was nothing else in the community of Waterloo– no shops and when the village had been cut off from mains electricity during bad winters, the Green Meadow became the heart of the community as it was one of the few buildings with coal fires. The Green Meadow was demolished in an outstanding example of institutional vandalism and 13 homes were built on the site.

6.Railway Inn, Pontlottyn. Pontlottyn was built as a temperance town with no pubs in the village. However the teetotal local landowner did not own the land beneath the Rhymney Railway viaduct and an enterprising brewery in the 19^th Century built this unique pub underneath the arches. Unique as it was built out of corrugated iron and featured 3 bars, one underneath each arch, all linked by a long corridor. The pub was closed by the later-day inheritors of the Temperance Movement, Whitbread plc and today the arches stand empty.

7. Royal Albert, Newport. The Royal Albert was a large, 19^th Century pub on Commercial Street. Multiple bars stretched back into the back of this Grade II listed Berni Inn, owned by Bass. Naturally this town-centre watering hole with easy access for all and in the centre of the shopping area did not fit in with the world view of Bass and was closed and demolished. That's right a Grade II listed building was demolished with the full support of the labour-run Newport Council and of CADW. River Island Clothing now occupies the site.

8. Conti's, Newport. Another legendary pub in the centre of Newport was the freehouse owned by the Conti family and it was famous for the quality of the Bass it served. One brewery visit from the pub to Burton-upon-Trent involved two full coaches of fans, not many breweries could cope with that many visitors today. Conti's was primarily a restaurant and the pub license was not obtained until 1976, by the 1980s though it had the highest barrellage for Bass of any pub in South Wales. After the death of one of the family members, the rest of the family decided to sell up and the pub was demolished to make way for retail outlets. Pasty shop now occupies half the site.

9. Chartists, Newport. This place was a dump, but it was one of the dumps that every town and city needs in order to keep the low-life nutters out of every other pub. The Chartists had 2 handpumps, one dispensing 'Khan's Traditional Ale' and the other 'Khan's Traditional Cider', the owner of the establishment being a gentleman from the sub-continent who decided to put profit before his religion in the best Ferengi tradition. The first time I visited the pub was in pre-internet days with Fido from the Lone Voice when PC Plod and Sergeant Jobsworth had thrown us out of the Alehouse as it was Good Friday and the pubs had to shut at 3. Wandering around town, looking for somewhere else to drink, we were warmly waved into the Chartists by one of the inhabitants and presented with the choice of Khan's Ale or Cider. Brew Wales went for the cider and was then offered the choice of, “A pint for a pound or a stein for one pound twenty”and naturally went for a stein. Well this illegal Heineken stein came out with no Crown stamps on it (Trading Standards obviously never dared to come into this pub), filled with a cloudy liquid that tasted like and probably was Bulmers Traditional. The 'Khan's Traditional Ale' turned out to be Courage Best. The toilets were unforgettable; down a spiral staircase, walking through what you hoped was water in part of the cellar to a couple of doors at the end where once inside even the verdigris on the fittings had verdigris on them. Another person in our company later discovered, on his way back through the cellar, that the local inhabitants rarely got as far as the toilet and just used to urinate down the spiral staircase! Anyway PC Plod and Sergeant Jobsworth reappeared a few hours later and chucked us out of the pub for drinking on Good Friday. The Chartist was closed a few years later after a police raid and a Portuguese restaurant now occupies the building.

Above:Trekkers in the snow

10. Trekkers, The Narth. Trekkers was an unique building in Wales, a log-cabin pub set in the hills of Monmouthshire. A rare local outlet for beers from Felinfoel and Freeminer breweries, Trekkers soon gained popularity amongst CAMRA members for its good beer and good food. Unfortunately, when the pub had been built as pony-trekking centre in the 1970s the building standards were not up to scratch and the pub closed after insurance problems related to the wooden framed structure.

11. Brew House, Newport. In the 1990s, the Ross Brewery of Bristol decided to open a second brewery in Newport and took over the former South Wales Argus printing works in Market Street, so where once papers were printed. Pints were now being brewed and served. One of the first things they did was to sell beer at 85p a pint, the cheapest in the UK according to a CAMRA survey. This invoked the wrath of the Licensed Victuallers Association (LVA), the chair of which persuaded a uniformed police inspector to accompany him on a visit to the Brew House, where the chair told the owner that it was illegal to serve beer below a pound a pint in Newport. The owner asked the police officer which law was he breaking, to which the uniformed inspector turned around and walked out! It turned out there was no law being broken, the LVA just had a “Gentleman's Agreement” to keep the price of drinks artificially inflated. Basically they were operating as an illegal price-fixing cartel with the full support of the police. “I'm a Scotsman not a Gentleman”, was the reply given by one of the Ross brothers and the LVA chair left in a huff! The Brew House was also famous for producing the strongest beer in the world, Uncle Igor's Famous Falling Down Water which weighed in at around 23% ABV and was only available in 1/3 rd pint glasses. The Brew House was a marvellous innovation for Newport, before superpubs came in, unfortunately it was never a success and the brewery was sold to WARCOP on the Gwent levels. The building still stands and is a nightclub nowadays.

12. Westlakes Arms, Cwmavon, Torfaen. Originally known as the Railway, this pub changed its name to commemorate the former Westlakes Brewery, the buildings of which still stand in the base of the valley near the pub. The Westlakes Arms was an early winner of the Regional CAMRA Pub of the Year Award and had a good reputation for food and beer. Unfortunately the small size of the car park meant that they could not expand further and the beer range dwindled, along with the choice and variety available, with only HB on in the later years. The former pub is now private accommodation.

Above:The former Westlakes Brewery