There’s a big old pub in the town centre here that’s been shut, boarded up, for 4-5 years now. I use to drink there for years, and worked behind the bar for a while. It shut for a few reasons: It failed H&S inspections (IIRC someone reported it it was so bad) and the management form the pub manager up to the brewery owners we, IMO, useless, and probably skint. The reason I couldn’t work there long was becasue the place was a tip and the staff treated it like a social club, not a job, not as though that really matters. Anyhow, it’s been shut and for a while and visibly degrading. I’m told the inside is uninhabitable now. From what I’ve read (Where I can find fact not BS) it’s imply not viable as a pub any more.
So, it appears as with many old buildings that it has some history and parts of it date from the 1700s, and it is a nice building in a handy part of town, and like I said, it’s BIG.

Now MacDonalds have bought it
(As in I believe they now own it)

This has sent seemingly the whole of town into uproar.
And so NOW, now it’s too late you understand, there’s campaigns, protests, petitions etc.

Before, nobody who worked there cared. The manager didn’t care. The brewery didn’t care. The customers didn’t care.

Am I missing something here?
Now, I’m no lover of MacDonalds, I’d rather it was someone else for sure, but nobody else has tried anything with it and it’s falling down, so good luck to them.
The town centre needs more development, and if this is what it takes to either a) Reinvigorate an old building or b) Flatten it and start again, then what’s wrong with that?
If it is so important, why did you all drift away in apathy? Why bother now? Why look backwards to something that gone?
Too little, too late. Live with it.

(Sorry. Just had about the 10th email/Facebook alert about it in the last month. Needed to share. 🙂 )

Morning Mr P. 🙂 I know exactly the place you’re talking about, twas a regular haunt of my daughter.

I object to more and more eating establishments opening in town centres, it’s not necessary and just creates more litter. Frankly, it would be far nicer to put some greenery along that road to improve the appearance!

Opjecting to Mcdonalds is just snobbery IMHO. At least someone is stepping up to save a building, provide jobs.

Also the coffee half decent, the eggs are free range and I love mcflurrys!

CG – Yeah, maybe it would, maybe not. But it’s too late now isn’t it? Nobody gaev a RAT’S ASS until Maccy Ds bought it.
That’s prime land there, with what? The back end of a car park on one side and a dual carrigeway on the other. i.e. – No place for a park.

I object to more and more eating establishments opening in town centres,

Fine. But that’s wahat it was before, isn’t it? Now they just won’t be selling alcohol.

Agree about the litter. They need to put how to use a bin instructions on all their packaging.
Only stupid bastards eat at McDonald’s as someone nearly said.

Don’t McDonalds employ litter pickers in some areas?

I assume this is the Tumbledown Mac? Agree, it’s been sat there empty for way too long, it’s in an ideal ‘drive thru’ location and if it brings/keeps custom for that part of town there could be knock on benefit elsewhere. On the downside it’s yet another piece of globalisation adding to the homogeneity of every town centre but I’d rather that than dereliction.

Agree about the litter

As it happens our local Neighbourhood Watch meetings involve/include the McDonalds drive-through at the other end of town, and having talked to the manager about this, I know that they employ litter pickers and if you TALK TO THEM they will step up the litter patrols in places they might not have thought of and get it sorted.
I used to work for KFC in Newark many years ago, we had a litter picker even then

Don’t McDonalds employ litter pickers in some areas?

Yep. In the nicer parts of That London, they’re very active in clearing up. Not too sure what they do elsewhere, though. Never seen any McD’s litter around their Salisbury branch come to think of it…

As above, better to see someone in the building and the jobs/revenue etc than an empty shell.

Sounds like typical knee-jerk NIMBY snobbery to me. It does seem to be a particularly middle England trait to just object to everything.

But with the present government’s attitude to planning laws, I wouldn’t fancy their chances of stopping it.

In the grand scheme of things, there are a lot worse things the site could be utlised for than a Maccy D’s

Yep. In the nicer parts of That London

As above, they do in Farnborough.

Going slightly off topic ,my friends wife is a superb cook and can make anything taste like a feast.
Ask her kids what they would like to eat and they will say McD. How has such disgusting food become so prized? ( I must admit I’ve never had one at this point but I’ve not eaten dog poo and I can assume they taste similar)

Purist – Agreed. It’ll fall down if it’s left much longer. I’ve been told the roof and ceilings already are. They were bad 10 years ago or more to my knowledge.

from what i understand from more people who were working there when it shut down its asbestos city in there.

gigged there loadsa times, was a regular there for a few years, got loadsa memories… but in the end, its been bought and it sitting there crumbling away isn’t doing anyone any good.

all the people protesting and trying to pester people to sign petitions and stuff now should’ve kicked up a fuss when it was originall closed down and purchased by a different company who were planning on turning it into a 2for1 meal place but then realised it wasn’t financially viable to restore the building to meet modern health and safety stuff so they quickly moved on.

I know the pub as well, although I never went there.

Before, nobody who worked there cared. The manager didn’t care. The brewery didn’t care. The customers didn’t care.

Exactly…It’s not a pub, it hasn’t been a pub for years. It’s a dissused building.

People are going on as if they’re trying to close down a busy and thriving pub, which is the heart and soul of the town.

At least McD are prepared to put their money where they mouth is and invest some money in Farnborough. McD isn’t necessarily what’s is needed, but it certainly preferable to a boarded up building

Seems there was a petition to oppose its closure some time back…

http://www.gethampshire.co.uk/news/s/2088441_future_looks_bleak_for_popular_music_pub

“The pub’s regulars launched an online petition, which received 1,312 signatures, to re-open the pub.”

Perhaps the people now objecting didn’t realise that MaccyD was going to open there? Isn’t it a false dichotomy, having only either deriliction or an unwelcome megacorporate on the site? I don’t know the place but a Weatherspoons might have been another option, or low-cost housing?…

There is a new(ish) weatherspoons already, 2 minutes down the road. There is plenty of new housing in the area.

Given the figures below, McD’s and other junk food shops need to be reducing in number, not increasing. I don’t think this is snobbery, it’s a pretty serious public health issue:

In 2010, just over a quarter of adults (26 per cent of both men and women aged 16 or over) in England were classified as obese (BMI 30kg/m2 or over). For the same period, around three in ten boys and girls (aged 2 to 15) were classed as either overweight or obese (31 per cent and 29 per cent respectively).

Source: NHS

but a Weatherspoons might have been another option

One opened last year about 300 yards away round the corner.

or low-cost housing?…

Fair point but, again, town centre, between a multi storey car park and a dual carrigeway? I think that would be less ‘low cost’ and more ‘ghetto’! 😉

I don’t think this is snobbery, it’s a pretty serious public health issue:

The place in question was shut down becasue it failed H&S inspections after people who became ill complained, so I understand. Personally, I wouldn’t drink anything that didn’t come out of a bottle even when I did go there. Sticky carpets, rancid toilets, damp hotel rooms: I know those three for a fact!
People have to put the food in their mouths to get fat, you know.

Here is a fantastic opportunity for community enterprise and that’s far more important than lining the coffers of some tax-dodging crap food outlet.

An idea – can this building be used for teaching skills, ie bricklaying, plastering, carpentry etc etc? Bring it back to life! Could the college further down the road not get involved (not sure what they teach there)?

People matter, be they the young unemployed or the elderly. Everyone has a part to play in Society, they just need an opportunity.

One of my favourite pubs in Southampton was turned into a McDonalds about 15 years ago. In some ways I was very sad as I have good memories of nights in there sitting in front of the fire but on the other hand, even in a massive area for students, right by 3 halls of residence, it was never busy so clearly had problems.

farnbro tech do do a lot of vocational courses… thats a good idea! whether they’d be able to go in from a H&S point of view is a tricky one i imagine.

i dunno, thing is if it wasn’t maccyD’s then chances are tesco would’ve thrown in a tesco express…

Be interesting to find out what exactly the objections are about..

Is it McDonnalds to company and it’s policies?
Or
Is it the food produced by McDonnalds?
Or
Is it the people that use McDonnalds?

What ever you think about McD’s they do provide employment are socially aware of thier surroundings and are abundantly aware of the image they have.
But..
They have saved some mighty impressive buildings in the center of towns and cities that would have turned into a Costa or Starbucks.

atlaz, I assume you mean this one?

As you mention, even in a bustling student area it was never busy.

*is concerned that STW’ers may have unknowingly met my daughter* 😯

Edit: excellent post by brooess, he gets it!

An idea – can this building be used for teaching skills, ie bricklaying, plastering, carpentry etc etc? Bring it back to life! Could the college further down the road not get involved (not sure what they teach there

College is Farnborough College of Technology. Have you not seen their big car workshop on the left just before the BMW garage?
Agreed, that’s probably a good idea, but as above, it wasn’t even viable as a business, and they have had 4-5 years to try it….

is concerned that STW’ers may have unknowingly met my daughter

When did she go in there? If it was between about 1995 and about a year before it closed, I most probably have. I might have even served her! 🙂

i dunno, thing is if it wasn’t maccyD’s then chances are tesco would’ve thrown in a tesco express…

To be fair, that’s probably the ideal use for that building.

Only stupid bastards eat at McDonald’s as someone nearly said

I must admit I’ve never had one at this point but I’ve not eaten dog poo and I can assume they taste similar

Can you? How, exactly?

How has such disgusting food become so prized? ( I must admit I’ve never had one at this point but I’ve not eaten dog poo and I can assume they taste similar)

I’ve never met you, but you sound like a few twunts I have seen pictures of before.

Are we following the same ‘logic’ here?

would need a photo of your daughter in her tumbly days CG to tell….

I don’t think this is snobbery, it’s a pretty serious public health issue:

Oh do be brief, you liberal, hand-wringing fool.

PARENTING. Parents educating their kids. That is an issue – not a bloody food shop. Amazingly, people who eat in good ol’Fish and Chip shops every day get fat too. All things in moderation.

Instead of Maccy D’s, Maybe a workers co-operative, artisan deli, selling organic, free-range, locally sourced, mungbeans, and fair trade coffee?

Could it not be converted into a re-homing centre for bitey dogs or somewhere to carry out Speed Awareness courses?

Binners – LOL! Nail on head there mate! 🙂

On a slightly different note, we stopped for a toilet break during a long trip on Sunday. Decided to have a Burger King for the first time in a long time.

One Chicken Royale and one Whopper. *NOT* meals, just the two burgers.

£9.50!!!!

Seriously?

I feel like I have had a burger ‘ing up my backsie!

How has such disgusting food become so prized?

It’s actually reasonable, and I’d far rather eat certain items from their menu than some of the inedible dreck (chewy chips, overcooked fish, gristly steak, unidentifiable pies etc) that I’ve had in quite a few pubs.

This is about pub vs McDonalds, right? Since when have pubs been all about the health food? People just order pie and chips when they go in there anyway, makes no difference. And they probably have a couple of pints of that well known miracle cure, beer.

To answer the OP – YES, people are much too anti. McDonalds isn’t fine dining, but it’s far from the worst place to get food if you are out and about. But people seem to be desperate to identify themselves with some cause or other, and this seems to be joining whatever lynch mob is currently in fashion. Save our local businesses.. yeah right, you’re about 50 years too late in the case of Farnborough.

Oh do be brief, you liberal, hand-wringing fool.

I would prefer it if you were brief to the point of absence you right wing knuckle dragging numbnuts – I think we have helped the discussion no end by hurling insults about with gay abandon what what 🙄

Is it McDonnalds to company and it’s policies?

Yes
Or

Is it the food produced by McDonnalds?

[indignant] I would need to eat it to know what it tasted it like

Or
Is it the people that use McDonnalds?

I would need to go into one to knwo who ate there

What ever you think about McD’s pimps drug delaers and people trafiickers they do provide employment [ of course Mc D’s cannot be compared to this but providing employment is not enough to justify is my point]
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