#41

Depends on the location really doesn’t it

#42

Yeah this is certainly the case in Bath. Loads of empty shops/businesses due to massive rates hikes and filled with big chain stores that can afford them, and even some of them don’t see it as a profitable location for this reason anymore. It’s really fucking shit.

#43

Yeah, it’s a mix of relatively affluent retirees, landowners and then fairly skint agricultural workers, so as a community it’s relatively privileged. I imagine those 300 people had to fork out well over a grand each.

#44

One of the big drivers is that PubCos switched their main focus from operating pubs to owning property. When the commercial market tanked and residential development became more profitable, they became debt-laden. Their way out was to squeeze individual pub landlords by charging more to sell their approved beers (which are cheap to the PubCos because they can buy in bulk) to the point that pubs are forced under and can be sold off.

Profitable pubs are closing, or being closed, in their droves because of the screwed up property market in this country.

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#45

I do know it, but didn’t know it had closed. Funnily enough I went in at Christmas and they were doing EVERYTHING wrong. So not that sad about it.

When I used to live in Cotham, I once had a fun bicker with some Americans (who I was visiting and who insisted on driving to the pub) about how many pubs I could walk to from my flat. They said “alright you limey wise-ass, how many can you actually walk to then - lets say within a 1.5 mile radius”.

The answer was 115.

115 pubs.

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#46

The problem is, Ant, that when the pub shuts, people on very low incomes lose their livelihoods, and the housing that results is nearly always either ‘luxury’ or student halls, and doesn’t solve the problem I believe you’re alluding to.

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#47

This is true and it is also obviously bad. It’s not unique to pubs though is it, the high street is dying, cashiers are being automated out of existence etc.

Just find the reverence we have for pubs as a nation a bit daft frankly.

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#48

Few places you can just go and lurk for a few hours nursing a coke

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#49

Yeah massively this, and they’re trying to price tenanted pubs out of the game to be replaced with managed houses that they can control more easily. I was very lucky in that the pub I ran was owned by a very dogged, seasoned pub professional who never let the tie to Enterprise get in the way of his way of doing things. It’s a very rare case, and one that won’t be sustained much longer. Basically, fuck the PubCos and the government for enabling them.

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#50

not biggly fussed. like them as community places and like hanging out with them and agree they should be protected but also everytime you go to one a worker is hurt

#51

I think pubs are mythologised slightly yes, but many, especially in rural areas, do live up to their importance by acting as important social centres for people who might not otherwise interact with many people, and not have much else to do (definitely the case where I live), also giving over their space to community/charity events etc…

You’re right though, the problem is definitely not just linked to the pub trade.

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#52

fucking love pubs

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#53

This is a genuine question rather than a sarcastic point or something but are many of those rural pubs in danger these days? Those sort of one-pub villages seem to all still have the pub any time I’m near any of them.

#54

Interesting and makes total sense.

Weird how things like this distort the property market. Slight tangent, but I was reading about Tesco, who bought loads of land in their boom years of the 90s and effectively became a land bank. Partly speculating on the retail value going up as populations grew and areas improved, partly to block rivals opening up on their turf. So now there’s loads of land that could be used for housing being hoarded by a supermarket company.

#55

Not read the whole thread but there are too many pubs and not enough houses.

#56

Some are yeah. Like marckee said really, it depends how interested the brewery or company that own it are in keeping it as opposed to selling the property for profit. I know of a few that have become community funded and owned off the back of this after being shut down.

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#57

Went to five different pubs in Norwich last night and they were all nice and busy. Thinly veiled “I’m a parent and got an evening pass” post.

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#58

Why not build new houses?

#59

Too many churches I reckon, would like to live in a luxury converted church apartment

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#60

Always have the best windows.

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