Heritage Public Houses Bill
Debate between Anna Dixon and Kevin Bonavia
Kevin Bonavia
I am very happy to agree with my hon. Friend. As I was just about to say, I represent the UK’s first post-war new town, but it is built around an old town, in which I live, that still has 10 pubs along its high street. That high street is part of the Great North Road from London to Edinburgh. It was the first overnight stop for coaches, and we still have examples of coaching inns, the Red Lion being the most famous. In the old town we also have the Mulberry Tree, which was once the White Lion. My hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh (Chris Murray) talked about the Tolbooth Tavern on the Royal Mile having been a prison, among other things. The White Lion was also a prison, for Napoleonic prisoners of war 200 years ago. It became a vestry and a fire station, and it is now perhaps the liveliest pub down the high street on a Friday night.
Where I live, the pubs on our high street are thriving—as I said, we have 10—but across the new town, where the nearest pub should be 15 minutes’ walk away, some of those pubs have gone, such as the Twin Foxes. The oldest pub in the new town, in Bedwell, is now a block of flats, which is a salutary warning from many years ago that ensuring that pubs survive is really difficult.
Anna Dixon
My hon. Friend is celebrating his post-war new town. Saltaire in Shipley is one of the original model towns, built by the great factory owner Sir Titus Salt, who was also a philanthropist. He built many things in that village for the community—a church, a school, a library, high-quality homes and some almshouses—but one thing he did not put in the village was a pub. He was a religious man, and he decided that it was not a good thing for his workers to have access to a pub. As a consequence, the historic Victoria pub—now grade II listed—was built on the edge of Saltaire in 1875, but it had to be on the outskirts. Sadly, it is now a pubco and is seeking a tenant for its ongoing use, which shows some of the challenges for our pubs. I would—