Pub News: Crooked House Burnt

[Blumf]

Just outside Dudley, near Himley Hall, sat a famous pub, The Crooked House



Listing due to mining subsidence, it's been a popular tourist attraction. Turns up occasionally all over the place, was in the opening to a Jonathan Meades doc for one (damned if I can remember which one)

Sadly, the owners sold it off recently, to a private owner. And by sheer coincidence, the place has now been set on fire.

https://www.dudleynews.co.uk/news/23704184.severe-fire-breaks-dudleys-crooked-house-pub/





Well, that's one less reason to visit Dudley.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Aw, that's a shame. It's only a few minutes' drive from me and I used to pop in occasionally in the past. Having said that, I haven't been in for years and I'd heard it was getting a little run down. Still, sad to hear that another historic pub has gone.

[Glebe]

Aw no that's sad.

[Blumf]

Seems like it was deliberate, as the road leading to the place was blocked, slowing down fire service access. Ties in with the place being broken into and trashed when it went up for sale, stopping it running as a going concern.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Weird how this keeps happening to historic buildings isn't it

[Milo]

A listed building being bought and then going on fire to destroy all the things that make it expensive to maintain! I'm shocked!

[idunnosomename]

noooo! not my wonky house!

[shoulders]

There is something so utterly brazen about how they did this and the fact it has reached national attention is notable.

Surely something will need to be done here.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/mar/21/rising-from-the-rubble-london-pub-rebuilt-brick-by-brick-after-bulldozing

Something along these lines would be good.

It's criminal what they've done.

Sad on a personal level is I had one chance to visit there but couldn't justify potentially having to walk back to Dudley in the rain. Never visited in the end.

Marstons are total cunts.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

That's reminiscent of a landmark Wolverhampton pub (sold off by Marston's, known as Banks's then) that was illegally demolished in 2001 and has recently been recreated at the Black Country Living Museum.
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/iconic-wolverhampton-pub-reopens-black-24753547

[idunnosomename]

this too
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/10/developers-who-destroyed-historic-lancashire-pub-punch-bowl-inn-hurst-green-ordered-to-rebuild-it

But sadly this isn't listed (which surprises me actually). doesn't mean it's legal though. and you could get it listed in retrospect

[Theoretical Dentist]

Wonky-roofed murdered pubs.

For anyone who missed it in the flat-roofed murder pubs thread, @studpuppet  posted a link to a lovely series of blog posts (1, 2, 3, 4) about an amazing-looking (and very non-flat-roofed) pub in Dunstable which is relevant here because (according to the blog) a lot of people have a false memory of it having sloping floors, which is probably an illusion caused by the (deliberately) curved rows of windows which weren't parallel with the level floors, and/or by being pissed. That pub was demolished before it had a chance to be listed.

[idunnosomename]

also should say the brick masonry is probably fine. Helps the building has the girders in it. Don't think any of the interiors were older than the 1960s. Cuntiest thing here is how Marston's sold it gleefully knowing it would never been a pub again

[Psybro]

Hmm this is a bit like how The Plough in Crosspool in Sheffield sat vacant and untouched for years until 'someone' vandalised it shortly after some councillors started making a fuss about it being potentially demolished by its developer purchasers.  It's a pile of rubble now.

[shoulders]

Similar tricks are being pulled all over the country. Large breweries and pubcos are almost more interested in their land holdings these days, the law of unintended (or perhaps intended) consequences when the last major pub reforms happened.

[idunnosomename]

GROW THE ECONOMY

TORCH THE PUBS

[shoulders]

West Mids mayor has thrown in his 2p saying it should be restored and although the main quote "questions need to be answered" seems a little weak in the circumstances, at least this seems to have really reached mainstream attention. Have the arsonists perhaps underestimated the impact of this?

[Sebastian Cobb]

I'd say it's the owners that probably underestimated it, the arsonists will be some scallies who were paid in cash to do the job, unless they are caught red-handed they probably don't care.

[shoulders]

I am referring to the "developers" as the arsonists rather than whatever lackeys they employed to do the dirty work.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I hope something changes. I hate this shit. It's always so blatant.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I hope something changes. I hate this shit. It's always so blatant.

I wonder if being less lenient on changing the use of the building after the fires is the way to go? Insurance gives you the cash so you get a pub back but it can be only used as a pub. Unless the actual arsonsists are caught in the act then there's not much left to link them to it unless they were feckless, and then linking the arsonists to the owners is hard if they don't feel like dobbing them in.

[Blumf]

Interestingly, a few miles away there's the remains of a house that burnt down a few years back and is up for sale with a clear note:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85963563

the site has been granted planning permission (21/01250/FUL) by South Staffordshire Council for the re-construction of the existing house to the same design, layout and proportions.

Seems like it's not just pubs.

Frankly, I don't like the layout, so I won't be paying the fucking half million to buy it!

[Mobbd]

I was sad. And then I saw this

noooo! not my wonky house!

And I laughed.

Fuck developers though, seriously. I loved that place.

[surreal]

I hope whatever goes there is haunted, burns the fuck down and sinks into the mineshafts.  Cunts.

Hope the Black Country Museum may be able to do something.

[Blumf]

Hope the Black Country Museum may be able to do something.

Sadly not.

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/crime/2023/08/07/black-country-living-museum-responds-to-pleas-to-save-the-crooked-house-following-terrible-fire/

However, in a response posted to the living museum's social media page on Sunday evening, museum bosses said it was not a realistic option, and that the museum "was not in a position save, let alone relocate, the building".

TBH, it doesn't make sense to move it away from it's location, it needs to be over the mine it sunk into.

But then, it's location is a PITA. Nearby sewage works and a long ugly lane to the pub and nothing else. Would have been nice if there was park land near by, instead of landfill.

[surreal]

I wanted to go there when I heard Marstons were selling up, wish I had now, I have some memories of being taken there as a child but never been as an adult.  It's a bad business.

[danwho9]

Misread the title, was confused as to why anyone would burn an 80s Australian pop band.

[shoulders]

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/pub-nearly-blown-up-bomb-8647538

Not as good as the headline would have you believe, but this is one of many going on across the country.

I'm activated by this as I know how close a local, Cardigan Arms came to ruin under Punch Taverns. We were lucky Kirkstall Brewery had deep pockets and some ambition.

The PubCos and big brewers, especially those owned by huge conglomerates do not give a fuck. Heineken's quasi property company Star Taverns do not give a fuck. Underneath that, Enterprise Inns barely give a fuck. Stonegate are nearly all shite to begin with anyway. They're property companies primarily now.

[idunnosomename]

But then, it's location is a PITA. Nearby sewage works and a long ugly lane to the pub and nothing else. Would have been nice if there was park land near by, instead of landfill.

still if you'd like to buy a lovely new build near said landfill and sewage works... call now!

https://www.keepmoat.com/stallings-place-kingswinford

[idunnosomename]

welp some cunts broken the fire dept cordon and demolished the standing masonry. fucking mental

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/police-called-crooked-house-historic-27476345

[Psybro]

As long as nobody learns about the negative elements of empire in school or at a National Trust property our historic legacy is nevertheless safe.