‘Graveyard tour’ remembers Cambridge’s lost pubs
By: JimOldfield
April 20th, 2012
CAMRA members in Cambridge have embarked on an unusual “graveyard tour” – to visit every one of the city’s 23 pubs that has gone out of business in the past five years.
In that time, a quarter of Cambridge’s pubs have been forced to call time on their businesses – and real ale lovers remembered them in a Tour of Destruction… taking in every lost pub and raising an empty glass, before leaving a personalised tribute at each one.
Since 2007, the number of pubs in the city has fallen from 105 to 82 – a fact which Cambridge and District CAMRA’s pubs officer Paul Ainsworth blamed on the dual effect of cheap supermarket alcohol and developers turning pubs into housing.
And he blasted three large pubcos, whom he said had owned the majority of the dead ale houses.
He said that most of the closures were community pubs outside the city centre and added: “We left a little memorial at each one, of a laminated sheet with an elegy to how the pub used to be.
“So many have gone to the great pub crawl in the sky and a lot of them were genuine community pubs.”
The ale lovers took the tour as part of CAMRA’s Community Pubs month. But they rounded off the sad day on a high note – visiting The Devonshire Arms, in Devonshire Road for a pint!
The once-failing pub beat closure after being turned around under new owners – and it is the branch’s current Pub of the Year.
Meanwhile, for Fenland ale lovers, here is the branch’s list of the less lucky hostelries that have been lost in action:
The Zebra; The Ancient Druids; The Fleur; the Dog and Pheasant; The Haymakers; The Penny Ferry; The Grove; The Carpenters Arms; The Hat & Feathers; The Cross Keys; TheOak/Lawyers; The Locomotive; The Duke of Argyle; the Jubilee; The Royal Standard; The Queen Edith; The Unicorn and The Five Bells at Cherry Hinton; The Rosemary Branch; The Greyhound; The Seven Stars; The Five Bells and The Rose & Crown.
To read more about the tour and see potted histories of the lost pubs and what they became, visit the links below.
Hand-pumped links
Cambridge &District CAMRA: www.cambridge-camra.org.uk
Lost pubs: www.cambridge-camra.org.uk/2012/tour-itinerary.html
