Forum Topic

Lovely pub to be demolished .... to make way for a road.....

Air Balloon: Landmark pub to close forever on New Year's Eve A historic landmark pub will serve its final customers on New Year's Eve. The Air Balloon on the A417 at Birdlip, Gloucestershire, is being demolished to make way for a major road upgrade. It has been called the Air Balloon for at least 220 years.....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-64074950?at_campaign_type=owned&at_link_id=9370F92C-86A1-11ED-A3E4-BD042152A482&at_medium=social&at_link_origin=BBC_Money&at_format=link&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_link_type=web_link&at_ptr_name=facebook_page&fbclid=IwAR2QxEKrHZGtGZ2SoQ2_AHTYoFv13EVBF57M0PJOcNWp3xzz3KgOdBC5aQQ Also: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/hot-air-balloon-pub-close-gloucestershire-new-year-b1049693.html

Ivonne Holliday ● 899d4 Comments

I hate to see lovely old buildings like this demolished.  Perhaps locals can start a campaign to move it brick by brick to a new location, as they are doing with an 1830s pub in Cardiff (Mail Online today).   I see Kevin McCloud has started a campaign to save buildings from demolition by developers, by giving all buildings a new Grade 3 Status.  He wants retrofitting not demolition.  Good for him and I hope it’s not too late to save Marks & Spencer Marble Arch and all the other buildings we take for granted on our high streets. Today, when I was in PHS I looked at that horrible building that replaced BHS and wished that Art Deco building could have been saved.

Martine Guy ● 891d

Well, if the road was badly planned I very much doubt it is the pub's fault!!!Apparently, it has been under threat for a few years as the Council wished to widen the road..... And it has now succeeded.I hope it is a compulsory purchase.  But it is ridiculous that  historic building is being demolished for a road!  Mind boggles!A bit like destroying irreplaceable habitats, including ancient woodlands, veteran trees, wood pasture, old meadows, mires and wetlands for the benefit of the HS2........

Ivonne Holliday ● 898d

I notice Wikipedia says 340 casualties which might mean KSIs rather than deaths? Still a grim statistic; let's hope they weren't the result of patrons sampling too much of the pub's products. One wonders with the difficulties pubs are experiencing with rising costs whether the owners might be secretly pleased to have what I'd presume is a compulsory purchase? Pity, though, to see another pub close.

Michael Ixer ● 899d

"The establishment sits on a junction notorious for car crashes - with an estimated 340 deaths there between 1999 and 2014."I see. So they must have built the pub in the wrong place? The 18th century fools!

David Ainsworth ● 899d