Bell tolls for pubs

And in the present climate, no one seems to care much about estate agents closing down branches either. But disappearing pubs shock even those of us who seldom visit them.

"When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves, you have seen the last of England," Hilaire Belloc famously wrote.

Of course, there is nothing new about old pubs closing. Back in 1355, the St Scholastica's Day town and gown riots began at the now vanished Swyndlestock Tavern, which once stood on the corner of Oxford's St Aldate's and Queen Street. (Undergraduates accused landlord John Croydon of swindling them — could that be the origin of the word? — and then threw a quart pot of wine over him.) But what seems to be new is the sheer speed at which pubs are now disappearing.

A report out this week from the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) found that nationally pubs closed at a rate of 36 a week during the first half of this year.

This has risen 33 per cent since 2007, when a total of 1,409 landlords rang the final bell and called for last orders.

Pubs are now closing nine times faster than in 2006 and 18 times faster than in 2005, the figures compiled by CGA Strategy show.

Oxford has had its fair share of closures, with 25 out of 150 disappearing in the last ten years, according to the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra).

But despite the depressing statistics, some Oxfordshire pubs are making a success of things. The Royal Oak in Wantage, for example, was recently named best pub in the central south region.

The Peach Pub Company, which owns the Fishes in North Hinksey, the Fleece in Witney, and, most recently, the Thatch in Thame, also seems to have a formula which works — though founder and owner Hamish Stoddart says life is becoming increasingly difficult, even for pubs in beautiful places that have turned themselves into so-called gastro-pubs. He believes only the best will survive.

He said: "There is an amazing amount of pressure making it increasingly hard to survive. We are succeeding and making money but we are like a swan or a duck, looking fine on top but paddling hard beneath the surface.

"Firstly, landlords are putting up rents in line with RPI (Retail Price Index), which is higher than the CPI (consumer price index), which we would prefer. Then there are the increases in fuel costs for heating and cooking, which I reckon have rocketed by about 40 per cent in the last five years.

"And of course there are the food price increases we all read about so much, up 15 per cent this year with some items, like individual rump steak, up 40 per cent.

"Business rates are dramatically up too, and we have also seen minimum wage inflation. "The poor old consumer has to bear all this, and the high cost of beer — which we buy for £1.20 a pint and sell for £3, compared to supermarkets, which sometimes sell it for as little as 50p."

Recently extinct Oxford pubs include: The Horse and Jockey in Woodstock Road, so called because it became the headquarters of the stewards of the horse-race meets that used to be held on Port Meadow between 1630 and 1880; the Wharf, situated on a sort of peninsula at the junction of busy Speedwell and Thames Streets, which served dock workers until the wharf was filled in during the 1840s; the Fox and Hounds in Abingdon Road, a mock Tudor building designed by JR Wilkins in 1926; and The Elm Tree on Cowley Road, designed by H. T. Hare, who also designed Oxford Town Hall.

Then there is the White House in Botley Road, boarded up since last summer, despite frequent statements from owners Punch Taverns that it will reopen imminently. Outside Oxford, in Nuneham Courtenay, there is now talk of reopening the Harcourt Arms, closed since 2005 — though owner Allan Yeung remains tight-lipped about his plans.

And in Thame there is deadlock over the Royal Oak, closed since 1999, with South Oxfordshire District Council refusing permission for it to become a private house.

In Abingdon, even the lovely old King's Head and Bell, with its many 17th century Civil War connections, is now closed.

The report said traditional rural pubs, and corner pubs in towns — like the Rovers Return in Coronation Street — were most at risk.

Camra spokesman Tony Jerome added: "So many factors are at work against pubs. In Britain, we have the highest beer duties in Europe at 43p a pint, compared to just 5p in France and Germany. Nevertheless, supermarkets soak up the duties and offer beer as a loss leader, sometimes selling it for less than they sell mineral water. Pubs cannot do that.

"Then the smoking ban has worked against what we call 'landlocked' pubs in towns and with no gardens — though, to be fair, some landlords have reported that the ban has actually helped, too." But paradoxically enough, despite all the closures, Britain still features high on the list of European binge drinking nations, as visitors to Oxford city centre or Abingdon on any Saturday night will be unsurprised to hear — judging by the level of rowdiness.

Earlier this year Thames Valley Police even proposed a ban on public drinking in Abingdon parks and streets in a bid to drive binge drinkers into the controlled environment of pubs. The call came in the week that the British Medical Association branded alcohol abuse in Britain as an "epidemic", in a report that slammed minsters for working too closely with the drinks trade rather than tackling the "emergency" with higher taxes.

It seems that in Britain we have the worst of both worlds. Camra spokesman Terry Perry said: "We need more people drinking less, in more pubs, rather than just some people drinking too much in city centre pubs."

A spokesman for Punch Taverns, Britain's biggest pub owning company, with 85 leased pubs and 12 managed ones in Oxfordshire, said: "We currently have our lowest level of pub closures in Oxfordshire, with just two in the whole of the region."

She added: "We firmly believe that the right entrepreneur taking on a lease with the support of Punch Taverns can create a strong, sustainable business. "Those who are able to innovate and work with us to create a really strong offer, bolstered by industry-leading support, training and investment, continue to run thriving businesses."

'There is an amazing amount of pressures making it increasingly hard to survive'