|
 GONE
are the shutters on the windows which signalled the possible end for
The Leopard in London Road - adding the pub to a list of premises
that have closed. But the end wasn't nigh after all as The Leopard
re-opened on June 2 under new management.
The new people behind the
bar are Jackie and Kevin (no surname disclosed) from The White Lion in Coppenhall, near
Crewe.
Other Nantwich pubs are not
so, lucky. The White Swan has closed and has a To Let sign on its
frontage.
The Cheshire Cheese in Crewe Road
is the subject of an application for permission to turn it and the
manager's flat into nine residential apartments with
car park. Nantwich Town Council, for one, have objected on a number
of grounds, and at a meeting of the Borough Council Planning
Committee on May 29, the application was deferred "for further
information and consultation
with the community regarding positive contribution of facility."
The third pub that is closed at
the moment is The Millfields, in the heart of - and serving - the
Millfields Housing
 estate.
That estate was built around the same time as the estate of council houses next to it.
And now a letter in The
Nantwich Chronicle (May 28) says the Black Lion in Welsh Row has
closed. (I saw someone sitting in the front window seat the other
day, but maybe that was a builder. Read on).
The newspaper letter, signed "Irreplaceable" - which presumably refers
to the pub and not the writer - talks about "the passing of a great
and very special Nantwich public house".
The writer refers to the
pub as "The Dog Pub" - a name I hadn't heard before with regard to
the Black Lion. Why the name? The writer says: "For the last 13-ish
years we, and many other dog lovers from various parts of the world
and the UK have made this pub a home from home."
But Nantwich is not to lose
the black-and-white building. It seems there are already plans for a
new use because the letter writer concludes: "The heart has gone and
I, for one, will not be visiting the new foodies establishment which
is planned."
Nantwich once had 39 pubs -
quite a lot for a small market town. How much of the demise of some is due to the new No
Smoking regulations in premises open to the public, I don't know. In
any case, many pubs are providing
outdoor smoking areas for their customers. |
