The slow death of the pub

[sawyl]

Truly excellent piece by Tom Lamont in today's Guardian about the gradual death of the British pub, largely as a consequence of ever-rising house prices which make it more lucrative for landlords to convert the location into a block of flats than to allow the place to continue life as a pub.

It's a truly fascinating account of the complexities of the conversion process — including the shadiness of some developers who, catching wind of a suggestion that their new site might be listed by English Heritage, bring forward the demolishion process to ensure there is nothing left to save when the inspectors get there! — and the various flaws inherent in the planning application system...