#278 Great Western, Warwick : 1998 to 2020 (RIP)

 For all pub fans, I'm afraid that this is a sad tale, reflective of the general malaise affecting English pubs over the past few years.

We begin our tale with something of a disaster - it was August Bank Holiday weekend and Emma Jane broke down just after the Cape of Good Hope locks. For our first (and I think only) time we had to get a tow...as far as Kate Boats. Unfortunately it was a Sunday and they were closed!

So, what else could we do? It was time to take a stroll into Warwick and investigate the town. The first pub we went into was the Great Western, just by Warwick Station.

This was at lunchtime on Sunday 30th August 1998, although we didn't eat there. As I recall it was a fairly standard pub with a bar and a lounge. After a pint we moved on to investigate the town. Fortunately, Warwick had plenty of pubs to keep us entertained both for the lunch and evening sessions!

As it was Bank Holiday Monday, Kate boats were able to pump out our bilges and fill us up with diesel, but there was no engineer available to fix our engine. Luckily, we hadn't exhausted the supply of pubs for another two drinking sessions. We did pop back into the Great Western on the evening of Monday 31st August 1998 for another pint.

 

Our next visit to Warwick was on the evening of Saturday 27th May 2000 and we popped in to the Great Western for a quick pint before moving on to the rest of Warwick.

There was very little in the way of changes to the pub, still a pleasant stop off for a pint of lager before exploring Warwick.

It was a few more years before we stepped back into the Great Western even though we'd stopped at Warwick in the intervening years.

This was on the evening of Thursday 30th May 2007 and the pub had been redecorated externally and somewhat refurbished internally. Although some work had been done, the pub did exude a feeling of gradual decline and decay.

Unbeknown to us, this was the last time we set foot in the Great Western. We visited Warwick several more times, but always walked on by and then, on the evening of Wednesday 5th June 2019, this is the scene that presented itself to us.

There had been a fire and it didn't look good for the Great Western. Subsequent research has revealed that the pub closed in 2015 and the fire was in 2017. Interestingly, the pub had obviously been redecorated and refurbished between 2007 and closure in 2015 with the right hand side door having been turned into a window.

Our most recent visit to Warwick was on the evening of Friday 17th July 2020 and this was the new scene.

Further research has shown that there have been several resubmissions for Planning Permission, but it would seem that the final phase of redevelopment has begun and by this time next year all trace of the Great Western will have been erased. A sad end to what was a quite distinctive building!

 

Also featured on the Closed Pubs website administered by Pub Curmudgeon. 

#176 Rose & Crown, Warwick : 1998 to 2014

There are lots of pubs in Warwick and, on a short stop, we don't manage to get to all of them. However, in the summer of 1998 our boat Emma Jane broke down (on August Bank Holiday) so we had the opportunity to explore the town more fully. One of the beneficiaries of our misfortune was the Rose & Crown which is just off the Market Square.

 This picture is from the evening of Sunday 30th August 1998. As I recall it was a busy pub that was a bit more upmarket than just a town boozer, but essentially it was a proper pub!

In the intervening years we visited Warwick on many occasions, but never went back to the Rose & Crown, and we still haven't been back inside!

On the evening of Saturday 27th September 2014 we again found ourselves in the centre of Warwick and, for the first time in ages, we ventured into the Market Square with the intention of going back to the Rose & Crown, but this is what we found.

The pub had obviously undergone something of a transformation since our previous visit in 1998. Unfortunately for us, the transformation was still going on and it was closed for further refurbishment. Nevertheless, we still managed to have a good time sitting outside the Tilted Wig (#166) in the unseasonably warm evening weather.

Having done some subsequent research, the Rose & Crown is part of the Peach Pubs Group and is now more of a gastropub than the proper pub it was before. If that means that it will survive for many years to come, then I'm all for it!