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Historic Birmingham pub closes today to be bulldozed for HS2

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cactustwirly

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With UK pubs still closing at a rate of 10 per week, it's hard to get too excited about one more. In most cases we end up with nothing more than a house to show for it at best, often it ends up a decaying eyesore for years... At least this one is being lost to provide something useful.

Exactly!
It isn't as if that part of Birmingham has a shortage of decaying pubs anyway
 
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edwin_m

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Yes, the original station building for the Hampstead tube line (the 2 Northern Line branches were originally separate lines)
There are several websites about this. Basically it was made redundant for passenger purposes when the Victoria line and Euston re-buiding between them created a proper access to the main concourse. But it's retained as a ventilation shaft and I seem to recall the shaft will remain somewhere within the HS2 station but the building disappears. The company standardized on this design of station so there are several very similar ones still in use and I don't see it is as big loss.
 

al78

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I've never really understood why people get so emotionally attached to old relics, especially those which are crumbling and no longer have practical use. I can see the point with very old buildings with magnificant architecture which is visually beautiful (e.g. cathedrals, castles), but it is things like that hotel in Ayr which is falling down slowly and unsafe, just knock the damned thing down and be done with it if the space could be better utilised.
 

ChiefPlanner

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I've never really understood why people get so emotionally attached to old relics, especially those which are crumbling and no longer have practical use. I can see the point with very old buildings with magnificant architecture which is visually beautiful (e.g. cathedrals, castles), but it is things like that hotel in Ayr which is falling down slowly and unsafe, just knock the damned thing down and be done with it if the space could be better utilised.

Slightly off topic (and I agree with what you say for many buildings which have outlived their use , or were not of great merit , viz this local hulk of a cinema in South Wales which appeared in local history F/book sites where people moan about the loss , but it was an empty , ugly wreck and had no practical or commercial future back then - area is now an addition to a local park. The few art-deco artefacts were salvaged and sold on)

What is the story now , about the saga of the unsafe (and sad) Ayr Station Hotel ......?
 

STEVIEBOY1

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There are several websites about this. Basically it was made redundant for passenger purposes when the Victoria line and Euston re-buiding between them created a proper access to the main concourse. But it's retained as a ventilation shaft and I seem to recall the shaft will remain somewhere within the HS2 station but the building disappears. The company standardized on this design of station so there are several very similar ones still in use and I don't see it is as big loss.

Ok, thank you for the info.
 

Mikey C

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There are several websites about this. Basically it was made redundant for passenger purposes when the Victoria line and Euston re-buiding between them created a proper access to the main concourse. But it's retained as a ventilation shaft and I seem to recall the shaft will remain somewhere within the HS2 station but the building disappears. The company standardized on this design of station so there are several very similar ones still in use and I don't see it is as big loss.
Off topic, but a separate entrance to the tube station would have been very useful, as it's a pain having to share with the NR passengers when not actually going to the NR station, and it would have been handy for the night tube too - instead they've had to create a false wall to separate the underground entrance from the main concourse and force all passengers to go outside!
 

EbbwJunction1

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It always amuses me that whenever something like the closure of a pub happens, there's always a lot of people complaining about what's going to happen … but I would guess that most of them have never used said pub! It's happened in Newport several times recently, and it's often been the case that had folks used the pub, it might not have closed!
 

TheEdge

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It always amuses me that whenever something like the closure of a pub happens, there's always a lot of people complaining about what's going to happen … but I would guess that most of them have never used said pub! It's happened in Newport several times recently, and it's often been the case that had folks used the pub, it might not have closed!

Pubs often seem to get very odd almost obsessive coverage when they are getting closed or demolished. I recall one article detailing a CAMRA campaign to save a closed pub from being demolished/converted and how disappointed they were that no one in the local area was bothered about the plight of the Horse and Crown (or whatever it was).

It was only at the bottom of the article that it was mentioned said pub had already been closed 12 years and most of the people nearby lived in homes built since the pub closed...
 

EbbwJunction1

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This is exactly what i mean!

There was one in Newport recently, where a pub on a very large estate closed and was going to be demolished for housing. Cue outrage from the locals … who had often previously complained that the place was a proper dive, full of yobs and which they wouldn't go into under any circumstances! The pub did close, was empty for a while and then mysteriously caught fire, thus speeding up the demolition process. As far as I know, it's large patch of empty land now, waiting for the builders to move in.
 

RPM

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Listing didnt save the nearby C18 Fox and Grapes however...........

Sadly the Fox & Grapes was subject to an arson attack which sealed its fate. That's not to say its future was assured, but the fire put the tin lid on it.
 
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