Regina est Mortuus

There can be few things sadder than watching the steady decline and ultimate passing of a real ale pub, but alas I must now report the closure of the Queen Victoria in Leicester.

What started out as a highly promising new venture began to disintegrate into a shambles, with beer range and quality deteriorating rapidly, increasingly unsavoury clientele beginning to frequent the place and general maintenance going to pot.

It seems that within a couple of days of their last Bogtrotter beer festival (3rd – 5th October) the bailiffs had been in and the place is now boarded up.

The jungle drums here in Leicester indicate that the closure was due to unpaid debts; certainly we here at Ale Affinity have received enquiries from persons within the brewing industry wishing to contact the proprietor.

The Queen Vic had the potential to be a true gem of a pub; the proximity to the train station and the soon to open Curve theatre made it an ideal location, and the intention of delivering quality micro brewed ales should have made it a real winner.

Sadly however something went badly awry, and over a period of perhaps three months a multitude of issues began to rear their ugly heads.

The result was never really in doubt once the rot set in, but somehow I kept holding out hopes of a turn for the better.

Now it only remains to be seen whether anyone will take on the pub and commit to the expenditure required to make it truly viable – a complete cellar overhaul, full renovation of the living quarters upstairs and significant structural work throughout the building.

For now at least, it seems the Queen is dead.

Pan-C

Cherry Bomb for GBG Stalwart

The front page of this month’s What’s Brewing glumly reports that the Cherry Tree Inn in Tintern, Gwent, South Wales has closed. It is especially heart-wrenching that this particular one of 57 community pubs throughout Britain currently closing month on month has ceased trading. The Cherry Tree is one of a select club of ten in Britain (and unique to Wales) to have made it into every edition of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide since its inception in 1974.

The pub is situated in idyllic surroundings, oddly sat atop the local Post Office / convenience store but is about half a mile behind the A466 main road and the iconic 12th Century Tintern Abbey and as such suffers from a lack of passing trade. Sadly, the owners have seen fit to call it a day and move on to another hostelry in a far more prominent location in the shadow of the Abbey.


The final straw, according to former landlord Steve Pocock, was down to what can only be described as complete idiocy on the part of the local council in forcing him to remove a modest A-frame sign from the main road, which informed tourists of the pub’s existence. Clearly the trickle of GBG-carrying conscientious drinkers was not enough to supplement the local trade and, having been shut since May, yet another national gem is in danger of being lost permanently.

What a disgrace! At a time when Britain’s best and most revered public houses need more support than ever, the local authorities have hammered a nail into the coffin of this splendid 300-year-old alehouse.

Pan-C and I were fortunate enough to pay a visit last summer, thanks to our friends choosing to hold their wedding reception at the nearby Anchor Hotel (ironically the new home of the Cherry’s former tenants). Stone steps led us up to an attractive roof terrace and the entrance to the inn where we were confronted with a small, pointed hardwood bar, a choice of several ales and cider dispensed by gravity direct from the cask and a warm smile from the chatty barmaid. Sat outside in the tranquil Welsh countryside, for me it was a real epiphany moment – probably as close as I have come to pub utopia.

Although now it seems I may never be able to return. Word has it the Post Office and village shop are also under threat of closure and that a planning application for change of use is in the pipeline. One can only hope that some fervent campaigning by the local Gwent Branch backed heavily by CAMRA HQ will entice a saviour to step in; or else a part of Tintern’s history will be lost forever.

Dubbel

• Pub pictures sourced from the Tintern Village and Cherry Tree websites