#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!

#162 The Wild Boar, Warwick : 1998 to 2014

Back in 1998 our trusty narrowboat Emma Jane let us down and we were stranded for two days in Warwick. It was the Bank Holiday weekend and so we couldn't get an engineer to look at the engine until Monday morning. Still, there are many, far worse places that we could have been stranded!

Over those two days we managed to visit a good number of the hostelries in the centre of Warwick. One such was the Park Tavern which we popped into on the evening of Sunday 30th August 1998.

As I recall, we only stayed for one pint and it was a typical boozer, but I don't really remember it much more than that.

Although we've visited Warwick many times since, we didn't venture back until the evening of Saturday 27th September 2014. This is what we found.

A complete transformation! New name - The Wild Boar - and a thorough refurbishment inside turning it into an upmarket real ale venue that also serves food. In a town like Warwick I imagine that it will be a great success, but as a lager drinker it's not necessarily going to be one of my favourites!

From The Wild Boar website I've discovered that it was refurbished and reopened in 2011 and that it is the brewery tap for Slaughterhouse Ales. If you are a real ale fan and you're in Warwick then this would be a great place to visit.

#085 The Roebuck, Warwick : 1998 to 2011

Our first visit to The Roebuck in Warwick was on the August Bank Holiday weekend in 1998 when our boat Emma Jane broke down on the Grand Union Canal just by the Cape of Good Hope locks. We got a tow to the nearest boatyard (the very helpful Kate Boats), but as it was Sunday there wasn't an engineer present...and no-one was available on the Monday either as it was the Bank Holiday. Although we were delayed by a couple of days, we still managed to get to Oxford, our ultimate destination, in plenty of time.

So we had several drinking sessions in Warwick during which time we visited many of the pubs in the town!

This photo was taken on Monday 31st August 1998. As I recall it was a pleasant enough place, but obviously not outstanding.

The next time we visited The Roebuck was on Thursday 31st May 2007. We'd visited Warwick on a few occasions in the intervening years, but had managed to miss out on The Roebuck.

The only noticeable change was in the hanging pub sign and the name above the door.

Our final visit was on Saturday 28th May 2011. We were on a one week excursion around the Midlands and The Roebuck was our second pub of the night. We'd been to The Railway (#063 in this series) to watch the first half of the 2011 Champions League Final, but at half-time we decided to move on, hopefully to get a better view (and for Will to have a fag!).

Again it seemed to be quite a pleasant place and we did get a better view of the telly...shame about the result, though. There were no apparent changes to the outside of the pub.

And now for the info I hadn't been aware of...The Roebuck is the oldest pub in Warwick dating back to 1470. This and the more up-to-date details can be found on their website.

#063 The Railway, Warwick : 1998 to 2011

The Railway in Warwick is a unique looking building, but in reality it is a typical local pub. Our first visit was in 1998 when our boat Emma Jane broke down on our Summer trip to Oxford. We'd spent the previous evening at the Cape of Good Hope, also in Warwick, and Emma Jane's engine stopped quite quickly after we'd set off. Luckily there was another boat nearby and we got a tow to Kate Boats which was only 50 minutes away. Unfortunately it was a Sunday and there was no engineer available to have a look at our problem and, as it was a Bank Holiday there was going to be no one available on Monday either!

Two days in the same place could have been a disaster, but we were on the outskirts of Warwick and in the next two days (= 4 sessions!) we went in most of the pubs in Warwick!

The Railway is the first pub we came to, but I don't think we went in on our first venture into town. However, at some stage we did go inside.

This was on either 30th or 31st August 1998 and I remember little about the visit.

The next time we went to The Railway was on a trip to take Emma Jane to Nuneaton for a new roof and a few other things. This photo was taken on the evening of Friday 27th May 2005 and I'm pretty sure that we had one and then moved on into Warwick.

The pub has changed little, but it no longer shows the M&B sign, the hanging basket has gone and the outside has been repainted.

And so we move on to 2011. Again this was a Spring trip, this time a round trip of the Grand Union, Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham & Fazeley, Worcester & Birmingham and Stratford Canals. We'd moored up late outside Kate Boats and were keen to find a pub to watch the Champions League Final between Barcelona and Manchester United as it was Saturday 28th May 2011.

It was fairly full, mostly with 'anybody but United' fans, but we got seats although the view of the telly wasn't ideal. We only stayed till half-time and moved on to a pub closer to the restaurants for the second half. Over the years, The Railway has hardly changed and it's a perfectly decent boozer, but there are so many more pubs in Warwick that it will only ever be a pub we visit for a swift one on the way into the town centre.