One pub reopens, another bites the dust

This is the story of two pubs. One has been brought back to life with a major investment and a focus on good beer and food. The second, unloved by its owners, is to be demolished and will rob a tightly-knit community of its only pub.

It’s a story that proves that failing pubs can be turned round, not just with money but with owners who have a passion for pubs and believe they can be rescued and become a vibrant hub of the community.

I had the pleasurable task of pulling the first pint in the revamped Queen Charlotte in Windsor – opened in style by town crier Chris Brown with manager John-Lee Perry. The 18^th century pub stands at the end of Church Lane, which at 51 feet 10 inches is the shortest recorded street in Britain. That’s handy, as opposite the lane is the main entrance to Windsor Castle, which means members of the royal household can nip out for a quick snifter and be back on duty before anyone has missed them.

The large inn with beams, settles, open fires and narrow flights of stairs was once the Highlander and became more recently the Blarney Stone. That’s a pretty daft name for pub in the royal borough and not surprisingly it didn’t trade well.

 It was closed by its owners, Punch Taverns, who embarked on a major refurbishment with the specialist small pub company Oak Taverns, run by Simon Collinson, who leases the pub from Punch. The result was a shared £500,000 investment that has produced a superbly appointed pub with welcoming staff and a fine range of local beers and excellent food.

The new name commemorates the wife of George III who, until the Duke of Edinburgh, was the longest serving royal consort. The opening was delayed for a month or two when excavations at the back of the pub revealed the bones of 41 bodies.

This macabre discovery was not due to a recent outbreak of mass murder – this after all is Royal Windsor, not the Queen Vic in East Enders – but was the result of the pub backing on to the local church yard and some time in its history being extended over some ancient graves.

With a neat touch, one of the cask beers on offer on the long bar inside the entrance is called Sherlock Bones, brewed by Sadlers Brewery. It joins beers from such local breweries as Windsor & Eton – you can’t get much more local than that – and West Berkshire, with further contributions from Oakham, Slaters and Weetwood plus the great Czech Budvar lager, which features in most Oak Taverns’ pubs.

The wide-ranging food menu has a tempting and well-thought-out range of dishes, with vegetarians well catered for. Starters include soup of the day, whitebait and goat’s cheese tart, followed by sharing platters of fish and meat, and such mains as fish and chips, burgers, gammon ribeye, vegetable and halloumi skewers, and both Caesar and Waldorf salads.  

I returned home with a warm glow that quickly turned cold when I discovered that one of St Albans’ pubs is to be demolished. St Albans, with 50 pubs, has more licensed premises per square mile than any other town or city in the country.

But most of them are squeezed into the centre. The Baton is on the outskirts, opposite a small but busy shopping centre called The Quadrant and surrounded by a network of houses and flats. It’s the only pub for miles around and locals will have to make journeys by foot or car to find another hostelry.

The Baton was once owned by Allied Breweries. It ended up in the arms of Spirit, now part of Greene King. At the end of November, the local council’s planning committee agreed to an application from Spirit to demolish the pub and replace it with flats and a Marks & Spencer food hall – a “food hall” is a convenience store that went to college.

If the situation weren’t so dire it would be laughable. The M&S store will be just 50 feet from a Sainsbury’s Local convenience store in a large petrol station. Over the road, in the shopping area, there’s a Budgen’s supermarket. The Quadrant needs a third convenience store like it needs a boil on the bum.

Spirit’s case is that the Baton has been haemorrhaging trade for some time. It said ‘sadly it’s not a viable business’.

But it could have been, with a bit of loving tender care. It looks as inviting as a coal bunker on a wet Tuesday and has an abysmal beer range in a city bursting with great pubs serving great beers.

Cash-rich Greene King and Spirit could easily afford the sort of investment Punch and Oak Taverns have made in Windsor. Close to St Albans’ main railway station, Spirit has made just such an investment in the Crown, which now has an excellent beer range and decent grub.

No such joy for the Baton, its customers and the local community. Another pub, needlessly and foolishly, bites the dust.

*Top picture Windsor Express