The end of pubs in Grangetown

The Grange, one of the last proper, historical pubs in Grangetown has closed its doors, probably for good.

Photo: Grangetown News blog

Like most of the pubs it will probably be converted into flats or pulled down to be replaced by flats. There's a good write up here, including some of the history. It had been a pub for at least 135 years.

The Grange was an old-school working class boozer. I guess we don't have enough old-school working class types in Grangetown these days to keep such a place open. I didn't go in there very often, but one of those times was to watch the League 2 play-off semi-final game between Shrewsbury Town and MK Dons, which was the last Shrewsbury game played at Gay Meadow. So it had some personal history for me. And now it is gone and I feel a bit sad about it.

When I first moved to Grangetown twenty years ago there were three pubs closer to our house than The Grange. They've all gone. The Windsor went first, converted to flats. The Plymouth on Clive Street became the Desi for a short while and then it and the Inn on the River on the Taff Embankment were both pulled down and turned into smaller blocks of flats. The Inn on the River, also known as the Pub on the Mud, featured in the short-lived BBC series Tiger Bay, although it was renamed in the show. The Baroness, a couple of doors down from The Grange became flats as well. The Neville along Clare Road tried to become a hipster bar, failed at that, became the Neville again and is now a convenience store. Yes, there are two new-build pub restaurants in the retail developments nearby, but no one seriously would call a Harvester a 'pub'. So, apart from the few social clubs that are clinging on, there is only one proper traditional pub left in South Grangetown, the Cornwall on Cornwall Street. I probably should go there before it goes too.

Reading the Grangetown blog's list of disappeared pubs, reminds me that the Inn on the River was burned down by arsonists before it was pulled down by developers. That tells you a little something about Grangetown.