“I’ve seen the cross-ticking and the damage done, a loss of 195 pubs on GBG21. Gone, gone..”

I promised you (well, US Dave), the results of my cross-checking the new Good Beer Guide tonight, so here it is.

THE SCORE

Having marked in pink all the 4,508 entries in GBG22 that I’ve already done, like this;

I calculate I’d visited 3,927 pubs by the time the new GBG “landed” (ugh). That’s 87.1%, fact fans.

I’m bound to have missed a few that have changed name or address; you may be shocked to learn that St John’s Town of Dalry has lost its St Johns Town.

THE DAMAGE DONE

At the end of the GBG21 ticking year I’d ticked off 4,122 pubs in that book.

So the net number of pubs lost between GBG21 and GBG22 is 195. ONLY 195, it’s often double that. Less churn and fewer new entries in a pandemic year, as Duncan and Simon examined recently.

Some of the pubs that left (like the Great Western in Wolves), were replaced by new ones like this modern classic in Oldham, of which more later.

THE TASK AHEAD

Even if you’re not a retired Finance Director (who can’t turn a computer on) like me, you’ll know that 4,508 entries in GBG22, less my 3,927 already visited, means 581 pubs to visit., about 11 a week assuming no holidays or domestic crises. It CAN be done, and no doubt a future post will examine some of the strategy behind doing it.

Of course, it’d be a lot easier if pubs like the one I attempted today would open when their website and Facebook says they open, but where’s the fun in that ?

#KeepItPink

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

15 thoughts on ““I’ve seen the cross-ticking and the damage done, a loss of 195 pubs on GBG21. Gone, gone..””

    1. Yes, new owners. Not all CAMRA branches apply the change of licensee rules quite as vigorously or I think there’d be more short-term casualties in the GBG.

      Only seeing my total going down by 195 seemed a very good result, as plenty of counties have added new micropubs.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. It’s a varied approach, Pete. Northants saw ZERO new entries, Lancashire and Derbyshire have continued merrily adding new micros opened in 2020 ! One pub in Manchester (pictured in that post was closed between March 2020 and only re-opened last month after the GBG was published, so goodness knows how the work was done to confirm its entry in the Guide !

      Like

      Reply

      1. Yes, there will be a number of optimistic entries – it’s reasonable to assume that if a pub has had good beer in previous years then that will continue. I hope that branches will have the opportunity to do a thorough survey next year.

        Like

  8. The Great Western fell out? Thought that was an automatic entry.
    Still not been back to Wolverhampton since Covid, so don’t know if it’s actually gone downhill or if Wolverhampton has anything to replace it.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s