The closure of the Bull at Horton Kirby and a plea for Good Pubs

On Sunday 10th April, locals at the Bull, near Dartford in Kent, discovered that their pub would close that evening. It was a shock to everybody, including the landlords. This was no failing pub, badly managed without any consideration of how to meet the needs of the local community. This was one of the great success stories of recent years.

It was approximately six years ago that Garrett and Lynn took on a failing lager-dominated village pub and turned it into a palace for real ale. This was one of the first attempts to show that, if pubs wholeheartedly adopted good quality real ale, they could turn themselves into highly profitable and successful pubs.

Garrett was a massive real ale enthusiast who scoured the country for the best of beers from the most exciting new microbreweries. Combined with his inimitable style and humour, including an infectious laugh that could be heard long before you entered the pub, he was the consummate landlord. His beer was supported by high quality and reasonably priced food produced by Lynn – a good pub with good food, rather than a restaurant with some beer. People from all around, including myself, made this their local. With a constantly changing range of new beers, plus some that became old favourites, he educated and enthralled us all. Some of what I discovered here helped to solidify my plans to open my own brewery, and it was here that I met my future business partner – both drawn here by the same love of his choice of real ale.

So the closure of the pub was both unexpected and a shock to the whole community. This was down to a dispute with the owner of the lease which came to a head on that Sunday morning. Garrett and Lynn decided to call it a day and the pub closed immediately. The closure left a gaping hole in the area for somebody to fill. Luckily, two weeks later, that person was found in Susanna Godden, who previously turned around the fortunes of the Hope in Carshalton. Whether Garrett’s shoes could ever be filled is unlikely. But Susanna will bring her own style and ideas, and she is listening to the locals who all know what made this such a great success - so we wish her all the very best of luck.

In the meantime, a local community lost a much loved pub. Many of us felt an incredible loss. The people here were magnificent – always friendly and quirky with a wonderful sense of camaraderie. For two weeks we faced an uncertain future and wondered whether our pub would ever be the same again.

The Bull may have been built upon a common love of excellent beer, but there are many other models for a successful pub. To lose a failing, badly managed pub with no audience is one thing, but the Bull showed that any pub could successfully attract a ready and willing community. And when that pub disappears, that community is shaken apart.

This is the human cost when pubs are closed. There are many failing pubs across Britain that have been taken over by new management and turned into success stories. These all prove that communities want and need good pubs and that it is only bad management that keeps people away. Good pubs are vital for engendering community spirit – the people of Horton Kirby would not pass each other in the street, but stop for conversations; they would contact each other if they needed work to be done; and close friendships would develop. If we want to save our local communities we need to understand the important role that can be played by the local pub. Sometimes it takes a maverick like Garrett to show the way, but usually it is simply down to good management skills, where landlords understand the needs of the local community and work hard to provide the attributes that make it into a ‘Good Pub’.