Was it really THAT special?
No it was pretty shite as a pub, run by a crap brewery who appear to excel in shutting don the local boozers..
But it was obviously unique, quirky and had plenty of potential.
Unfortunately it really needs a regeneration of the immediate surrounding area to be successful, but can't really see that happening.
More importantly, does anyone actually want the building?
That's a key question, and based on the fact there wasn't a huge queue to buy it when Marston's sold it I'm going to say no.
Rebuild it, great. Then what you you going to do with it? It's not viable as a pub or it'd still be open, it's in a dive of an area that's off the beaten track. Lots of people mourned the loss of the building, very few will have visited it recently. It's 5 miles from me and I don't think I've been there for 20 years.
As I say, I completely support punishment of those who knocked it down, but I'm not convinced this is the right course of action.
As is so often the case. Round here we have expensive renovation of derelict barns into poorly designed super-expensive houses (often with idiotic restrictions like no garden and you have to pretend to run a business from home) when they could much more sensibly be replaced by proper housing that’s fit for purpose. Or just removed if the view is really that important.
Because national park, and planning.
I wonder if 200 years from now people will be protecting corrugated metal farm sheds because of posterity.
Good luck to them in getting a wonky rebuild through building control...
