shut | BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

Posts tagged ‘shut’

#365daysofbiking Ain’t nobody home

Thursday January 14th 2021 – One of the toughest bits of the pandemic for me personally – and I am, of course, aware there are much worse things going on – has been the darkness in roadside pubs and restaurants during lockdown.

Never a great pubgoer, I do like the atmosphere when you pass a busy pub at night. They always seem so warm and welcoming. And this winter that’s been largely absent.

I’m glad to note though up on Chester Road North, the Hussey Arms, although well and truly shut, has kept the lights on.

It’s like a little beacon of hope in the darkness.

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#365daysofbiking This is not my homecoming

Friday November 20th 2020 – I’d been in Birmingham and returned early evening on Friday. It wasn’t late, maybe 7-7:30pm. Shire Oak Crossroads, a homecoming beacon for me for decades with it’s brightly lit pub, frenetic traffic and air of hilltop crossing has always been special to me.

For one thing, it means the journey from here is almost completely downhill and I can coast. But it also means I’m very nearly back home and I love to see the lights and busy but patient traffic at night.

Except at the moment, during the second lockdown, there is surprisingly little traffic and the pub whose welcoming lights I cherish sits in darkness, forbidden from opening.

This is not the homecoming I love. This feels desolate, empty and almost nightmarish.

I’ve talked a lot about steadying influences and anchors the last few weeks here. This is one I rely on usually that has sort of gone – well not gone, but been temporarily lost. And it affects me more than I would imagine.

It’s now like a symbol of the times.

Ah well, these days will pass. They have to.

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#365daysofbiking When the lights go out

April 5th – An exercise spin out at dusk unusually took my mood down. I wasn’t feeling great and this one scene made my mood nosedive.

I love the view of Anchor Bridge at night from the canal. It’s magical and beautiful and the light is normally gorgeous. Tonight, though, something was missing.

The incidental light from the adjacent Anchor Pub was absent: The pub lights normally add a warm glow to Anchor Bridge night photos.But the pub is dark, silent and closed in accordance with lockdown rules.

I hopped up the ramp to the pub. This normally welcoming place was in darkness, and looked forlorn.

My heart sank.

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#365daysofbiking Fallen silent

April 3rd – A dusk ride out on a Friday at 7pm and there’s an unnatural silence descended on the area. The Shire Oak Pub should be alive, homely, lit up and buzzing with activity.

Because of the Coronavirus restrictions, it is silent, and shut.

Curtains drawn, it’s fallen silent, like the roads around it, in which I feel like an alien intruder.

These are very strange days indeed.

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December 22nd – Last Thursday, I recorded the former Shoulder of Mutton pub, lathery a restaurant, as being boarded up and derelict. Things seem to move fast in these parts, as today when I passed, the pub wasn’t open, but the boards had been removed and lights were on.

Anyone have a clue whats going on?

Reader Andy Colman said in response to the original post:

I was just thinking that my abiding memory of this pub is the smell riding past it on club runs and then you stated the same thing. Maybe if we’d popped in from time to time ?

Andy, you’re probably right. The trouble I have is that often, I pass establishments like this, and The Trooper et al, and wonder if they’re still really pubs, and would they welcome a cyclist? It’s a bit of a vicious circle, I guess.