MostlyBollocks
GCM
The Last Whites of the East End
This post by @Cold_Collation got me thinking. When I moved to Eccles 20+ years ago, there were (IIRC) 57 pubs in the town. There’s not much more than a dozen now. I used to crawl the town centre with mates but I haven’t been there for ages and the demise of pubs is shocking. There is a ‘posh designer’ suburb up the road that has a preponderance of bar/café’s serving expensive bottled beer and cocktails. Most of their clientele aren’t locals (they’re all in the single remaining proper boozer) they taxi in from Salford for a ‘posh night out’.
What has caused this decline? I agree with @Cold_Collation that there’s a massive problem with the Pubcos – my local is Punch owned and only safe because it’s listed and none of the developers who have seen it have been interested – but, along with all the other Punch pubs, it’s permanently on the market.
Is it that the ‘wrong’ type of people want to become licencees (and are being granted licences)? Has the smoking ban been as big a factor as I think it has?
Is there any way to revive what was once a cornerstone of our communities?
This post by @Cold_Collation got me thinking. When I moved to Eccles 20+ years ago, there were (IIRC) 57 pubs in the town. There’s not much more than a dozen now. I used to crawl the town centre with mates but I haven’t been there for ages and the demise of pubs is shocking. There is a ‘posh designer’ suburb up the road that has a preponderance of bar/café’s serving expensive bottled beer and cocktails. Most of their clientele aren’t locals (they’re all in the single remaining proper boozer) they taxi in from Salford for a ‘posh night out’.
What has caused this decline? I agree with @Cold_Collation that there’s a massive problem with the Pubcos – my local is Punch owned and only safe because it’s listed and none of the developers who have seen it have been interested – but, along with all the other Punch pubs, it’s permanently on the market.
Is it that the ‘wrong’ type of people want to become licencees (and are being granted licences)? Has the smoking ban been as big a factor as I think it has?
Is there any way to revive what was once a cornerstone of our communities?