New England Inn to be Demolished.

[dougdeep]

AKA The Cobbler's Thumb. Sad to see another Brighton pub disappear.

 

[livewire11]

Bad times!!

 

[KNC]

I thought I read this was going to be refurbed.

 

[MattBackHome]

Condemned innit? And it smelt of piss. And the beer was shit. And it was full of twats.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Years and years ago, East Sussex County Council bought the pub - to demolish it for a road scheme that never happened.

 

[red star portslade]

Always preferred to drink in The Engineer if i was in that part of town.

 

[whitelion]

Used to drink there regularly and around Preston Circus in 83-84 when I met my then wife and she lived just up the hill....is the Marquess of Exeter still going?

 

[Comedy Steve]

That's a shame. A decade or so ago some 'interested parties' brought in my Dad (sitting Chair of Sussex Family History Group at the time) to supply a bit of backstory about the pub to help argue against it's demolition. Sorry to see it go, especially the giant thumb on the side, which I always strangely liked.

 

[Hamilton]

Used to drink there regularly and around Preston Circus in 83-84 when I met my then wife and she lived just up the hill....is the Marquess of Exeter still going?

Been refurbed. Now called The Chimney House. Actually a good eatery/pub, but not a trad pub anymore. By the end the Marquess needed refurbing. It had become a local that wasn't really about the locals.

Preatonville is still going. Not been there for a few years, but was a nice pub. Seem to remember it just needed a nice landlord as the manager wasn't the 'mine host' required - which was odd because I understand Blue who owns the Basketmakers also owned the Prestonville.

 

[The Modfather]

Shame. Another decent pub bites the dust

 

[Bill Cassidy's tie up]

Probably totally wrong here but isn't that BHT are putting the container bin houses for want of a better description

 

[Ninja Elephant]

Always preferred to drink in The Engineer if i was in that part of town.

The food in there is wonderful. Truly wonderful.

 

[meanmachine25]

Hooray

 

[The Large One]

A 19th Century pub is to be demolished by the council after it was deemed unsafe.

Brighton and Hove City Council has applied to level The Cobbler’s Thumb in New England Road, Brighton, after surveys revealed it was subsiding. The pub has been surrounded by scaffolding and warning signs for weeks and now the council has decided that repair costs would be too high and has applied for permission to pull the building down.

The pub has stood on the corner of New England Road for more than a century and details of the then New England Inn and its landlord feature in the 1881 Census.

The pub has been run by Inn- Brighton for the past decade but the lease ended earlier this year. Land around the pub, known as Richardson’s Yard, is to be developed later this year with 36 shipping containers to be used as temporary housing for the homeless.

Pete Coppard, president of the Brighton and South Downs branch of the Campaign for Real Ale, said: “It’s been under threat for years. There was a plan decades ago to build a bypass on London Road through New England Street. I believe the council bought the pub and it was closed for a while. Once the site is owned by the council it always had the shadow of death over it in my opinion.

Gavin George, managing director of InnBrighton, said: “It was a short hold agreement, we were just keeping it running. The council always had plans to develop round there. The pub was doing OK but it wasn’t our busiest.”

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council, which owns the land, said: “The Cobbler’s Thumbis an old building that has structural problems related to subsidence that require urgent attention. Remedial works to make it fit for purpose would be very expensive indeed, so we have decided that the best option in terms of value for money for local taxpayers is demolition.”

“No decisions have yet been taken on its future use,” he added.

 

[whitelion]

Been refurbed. Now called The Chimney House. Actually a good eatery/pub, but not a trad pub anymore. By the end the Marquess needed refurbing. It had become a local that wasn't really about the locals.

Preatonville is still going. Not been there for a few years, but was a nice pub. Seem to remember it just needed a nice landlord as the manager wasn't the 'mine host' required - which was odd because I understand Blue who owns the Basketmakers also owned the Prestonville.

Amazing how many pubs have changed their name. The Noble House ex Jamaica Inn ex Golden Cross ex Mansfield.
Is the Chimney House Part of that group?