Saturday, March 20, 2010

A view of a pub

Google have recently updated the Street View facility on Google Maps to include pretty much the whole of the UK. Some may feel this is an invasion of privacy, but one benefit it brings is to be able to view pretty much any pub you care to mention.

So here are a couple of Stockport’s classic unspoilt Robinson’s pubs, the Arden Arms in the town centre, and the Davenport Arms at Woodford.

The Old Bull’s Head at Little Hucklow, recently mentioned on here, still looks inviting despite having been closed for five years, and hopefully the current closure of the very attractive Highwayman at Rainow will prove temporary.

Of course it also shows up the all-too-obvious decline of the pub trade. Here is the Aston Arms in Frodsham, Cheshire, once a delightful multi-roomed pub with its own bowling green. A couple of miles along the road in Helsby, two of the four pubs in the village are now closed and boarded, the Horse & Jockey and the Robin Hood. Ironically, I would always have thought those two were more appealing and had better prospects than the two that remain open, the Railway and the Helsby Arms (ex Brown Cow).