Latest news with #London-wide
Scotsman
12-06-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
First Job, first flat: Data reveals Dundee is an affordable UK city for New graduates
Many fresh grads are finding their first paycheques swallowed whole by sky-high rent. Moving Expert reveals which cities have the most affordable rent. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... For many university graduates in the UK, the cap-and-gown ceremony marks more than the end of academia. It's supposed to be the beginning of financial independence, career growth, and perhaps even a first apartment. However, for thousands entering the workforce, the dream of living and working in the city of their choice is being crushed by an uncomfortable truth: rent costs in many UK cities now consume more than half of a graduate's salary. According to new analysis from Wolf River Electric, average graduate salaries across several key UK cities fall far short of what's needed to rent a one-bedroom flat. Fortunately, there are cities bucking the trend: Top 10 UK Cities Where Rent Is Below 30% of Graduate Income Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Dundee City % of Income Spent on Rent Sunderland 14.16% Dundee 20.00% Bradford 22.68% Doncaster 22.87% Carlisle 25.92% Stoke-on-Trent 26.32% Gloucester 27.65% Derby 27.93% Kingston upon Hull 28.01% Aberdeen 28.17% Sunderland tops the list of most affordable cities for new grads, with rent accounting for just 14.16% of a typical graduate income. Dundee (20%), Bradford (22.68%), and Doncaster (22.87%) also offer young professionals room to breathe and save. These lower-cost cities may not carry the same cachet as London or Oxford, but they are increasingly attractive for graduates prioritising financial freedom over status postcodes. Many of these cities also offer growing employment opportunities and access to remote or hybrid work options. Top 10 UK Cities Where Rent Exceeds 50% of Graduate Income City % of Income Spent on Rent Westminster 96.34% London 81.63% Oxford 67.59% Bristol 60.72% Milton Keynes 54.36% St Albans 53.15% Edinburgh 52.62% Cambridge 52.07% Brighton & Hove 52.04% Bath 51.89% London has long been known for its expensive property market, but the figures go beyond shocking. In Westminster, new graduates spend a staggering 96.34% of their net income on rent. London-wide, the figure remains sky-high at 81.63%. And it's not just the capital: Oxford (67.59%), Bristol (60.72%), and Manchester (51.27%) all rank as cities where a graduate's salary barely covers the cost of a modest flatshare. These figures are calculated using average regional graduate earnings from the Graduate Outcomes 2021 dataset and the most recent monthly rent data. What's Driving the Graduate Housing Crisis? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad At the heart of the issue lies a mismatch between graduate salaries, housing supply, and regional opportunity. High-paying graduate jobs are often concentrated in cities where the cost of living is least manageable. Meanwhile, cities offering more affordable housing often lack the same density of graduate-level roles or high-growth industries, though this is beginning to change. A significant number of graduates are now opting to move back home with parents, delay relocation, or work remotely while living in lower-cost towns. Others are resorting to house shares or even long-distance commuting. Time for a Rethink: Where Should Grads Really Start Their Careers? The data makes one thing clear: choosing a post-university city is a matter of survivability. As more employers embrace hybrid work models and regional talent development, now is the time for graduates to think beyond traditional hubs. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Likewise, universities, policymakers, and employers must work together to close the gap between graduate pay and real-world expenses. Without intervention, we risk creating a generation of workers who are employed but perpetually struggling. Takeaway for Graduates If you're considering where to launch your career, look beyond London. Use your degree wisely, and pair it with affordable living. Consider regional cities with lower rent burdens and growing industries. Ask yourself: Do I want a postcode or peace of mind? 'As someone who helps young professionals move across the UK, I've seen a noticeable shift in graduate migration patterns over the last five years. More grads are bypassing London and other traditional career hotspots, not because they don't want to live there, but because they simply can't afford to. When rent consumes 70% or more of your salary, you're not really living. You're just trying to survive.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Cutting bin collections is a sure-fire route to anarchy
It is said by 'preppers' that we are always only two missed meals away from anarchy. I would add that we are also probably two missed bin collections away. Even if – despite the warnings of Americans who stockpile supplies and weapons in anticipation of the end times – we are still hanging on to civilisation by a tie-string, you have to feel for the people of Birmingham. They are experiencing what you could call 'every householder's nightmare'. After two months of strikes by the Unite union, the city's rubbish has continued to pile up in the streets, attracting attention from reporters around the world eager to illustrate Britain's demise and, more importantly, an army of grateful rats. As the great Birmingham bin war becomes ever more bitter, millions more of us are experiencing a taste of what is to come, with councils around the country reducing bin collections and driving paranoid residents – me included – to anger then despair at the thought of our rubbish not being removed. The prospect of collections becoming monthly brings me out in hives. Bins just seem more important the older you get, like slip-on shoes or Wheeler Dealers. It was bad enough already for those of us of a pernickety disposition. Last year, my weekly collection began to appear without warning at 5am, so unless you remember to position your bins where the boys from the trucks prefer them the night before, you can forget it. This has led to several occasions on which I have stormed out into the night in my dressing gown on hearing the 'beep beep' of the van. This week a letter arrived informing us collections were being reduced to once a fortnight. Why this should provoke existential angst I am not entirely sure, but I am confident many others also feel 'bin derangement syndrome'. This is all in the context of our Council Tax rising year after year. It was pointed out to me that if you are single, employed and healthy, pretty much the only service your hard-earned cash avails you from the extortions of the Council Tax is regular refuse collections. If 57p in the pound goes on social care you are paying for but don't use, the least you can expect is to have your leftovers taken away. This is why it is so important in local politics. A Southend councillor once told me on election night that bins were always in the top two issues during canvassing – it's the battleground where voters are won and lost. If the slow steady deterioration of this service fills us with dread – perhaps suggestive that our national downfall is inexorable – how much worse is it for the people of Birmingham being forced to walk around pyramids of black bags filled with putrifying waste? It's inevitable that comparisons with the dreaded 1970s will follow, from the London-wide strikes of 1970 to the Winter of Discontent in 1979. If you want a symbol of a society in crisis, you've come to the right place. Nobody wants to live among visible proof of decline or breakdown, so there is something triggering about any inconsistency. Worse still, when, without explanation, they just never come at all, you are left to stare out of the window muttering, 'But why? What are we to do?' It will reach the point when waiting for the bin men will be like waiting for Father Christmas. Maybe we should leave out a pie and a shot of whiskey to encourage them. It wouldn't surprise me if my last words on this earth are 'Don't forget… to put… the bins out'. Modern life really is rubbish. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
28-03-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Cutting bin collections is a sure-fire route to anarchy
It is said by 'preppers' that we are always only two missed meals away from anarchy. I would add that we are also probably two missed bin collections away. Even if – despite the warnings of Americans who stockpile supplies and weapons in anticipation of the end times – we are still hanging on to civilisation by a tie-string, you have to feel for the people of Birmingham. They are experiencing what you could call 'every householder's nightmare'. After two months of strikes by the Unite union, the city's rubbish has continued to pile up in the streets, attracting attention from reporters around the world eager to illustrate Britain's demise and, more importantly, an army of grateful rats. As the great Birmingham bin war becomes ever more bitter, millions more of us are experiencing a taste of what is to come, with councils around the country reducing bin collections and driving paranoid residents – me included – to anger then despair at the thought of our rubbish not being removed. The prospect of collections becoming monthly brings me out in hives. Bins just seem more important the older you get, like slip-on shoes or Wheeler Dealers. It was bad enough already for those of us of a pernickety disposition. Last year, my weekly collection began to appear without warning at 5am, so unless you remember to position your bins where the boys from the trucks prefer them the night before, you can forget it. This has led to several occasions on which I have stormed out into the night in my dressing gown on hearing the 'beep beep' of the van. This week a letter arrived informing us collections were being reduced to once a fortnight. Why this should provoke existential angst I am not entirely sure, but I am confident many others also feel 'bin derangement syndrome'. This is all in the context of our Council Tax rising year after year. It was pointed out to me that if you are single, employed and healthy, pretty much the only service your hard-earned cash avails you from the extortions of the Council Tax is regular refuse collections. If 57p in the pound goes on social care you are paying for but don't use, the least you can expect is to have your leftovers taken away. This is why it is so important in local politics. A Southend councillor once told me on election night that bins were always in the top two issues during canvassing – it's the battleground where voters are won and lost. If the slow steady deterioration of this service fills us with dread – perhaps suggestive that our national downfall is inexorable – how much worse is it for the people of Birmingham being forced to walk around pyramids of black bags filled with putrifying waste? It's inevitable that comparisons with the dreaded 1970s will follow, from the London-wide strikes of 1970 to the Winter of Discontent in 1979. If you want a symbol of a society in crisis, you've come to the right place. Nobody wants to live among visible proof of decline or breakdown, so there is something triggering about any inconsistency. Worse still, when, without explanation, they just never come at all, you are left to stare out of the window muttering, 'But why? What are we to do?' It will reach the point when waiting for the bin men will be like waiting for Father Christmas. Maybe we should leave out a pie and a shot of whiskey to encourage them. It wouldn't surprise me if my last words on this earth are 'Don't forget… to put… the bins out'. Modern life really is rubbish.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Help, my historic local pub has turned into a brasserie
My local pub has closed down, to be converted into a brasserie. Ye Olde Cherry Tree in Southgate, north London had been trading since 1695 but today it's covered in scaffolding. It's unclear what building work is going on behind that scaffolding – it's Grade II listed so presumably there are some constraints. It's also unclear whether it will retain the historic name, but it's already listed on the brewery's website as 'Browns Southgate'. However its pub days are over. Although the closure prompted dismay locally, it has had minimal attention on a national or even London-wide scale, overshadowed as it was by the closure of another Ye Olde nearby, the rather better known Swiss Cottage. But even losing two historic pubs in the same part of the city in the same week is completely unremarkable: recent stats show that by the end of last year we were losing as many as 34 a month in England and Wales. Now the news that the average price of a pint is set to rise to £5.01 for the first time next month will cause more doom and gloom among the nation's pub goers and landlords struggling with rising costs. A recent YouGov poll found only 50 per cent of the public had visited any public house in the last month – and 17 per cent hadn't been to one in over a year, if ever. Another study, by Altus Group, found that 412 pubs had gone out of business last year alone, the biggest fall since the pandemic obliterated hundreds. Pubs are seemingly under attack from all sides: the cost of living crisis, the tax man, and even, as The Crooked House in Staffordshire notoriously found, arsonists. The Sekforde in Clerkenwell is the latest to face attempts from neighbours to get it closed down for being too noisy. It survived this month – just. A £250 million government scheme, The Community Ownership Fund, which enabled groups of locals to take ownership of cherished pubs which might otherwise be demolished was wound up at the end of last year. There are now 200 such pubs but it looks like there won't be any more. So why are pubs having such a rough time and how can they avoid the fate of The Cherry Tree? Roger Protz, a former editor of The Good Beer Guide, has been writing about pubs for 50 years. He told me: 'At the end of the Second World War there were 100,000 pubs in this country. Now there are fewer than 40,000. You wouldn't get this in France or Germany – they wouldn't let their vineyards be torn up. But in the UK we let this happen. There are steps that the Government can take to stop this but they haven't.' These include, he explains, removing the VAT on pub food and drinks, reducing business rates and cutting excise duty. 'It's crazy that you can go into a supermarket and buy lager for £1 – as cheap as water – but the same drink in a pub will cost you £5. When you buy a pint in a pub in England, a third of your money is going to the Government. But in Germany the equivalent tariff is just 2p. 'You wouldn't tax a Norman church until it's forced to close down – so why would you tax a Georgian pub in this way? These are heritage institutions and community resources that should be the pride of the country.' But amid the gloom, there are occasional positives: 'In my hometown, St Albans, we have recently seen Ye Olde Fighting Cocks [often said to be the oldest pub in the country], come back from closure. And three new pubs have opened too – there can be successes.' This idea of pubs opening or reopening leads me to Oisín Rogers. Aside perhaps from Jeremy Clarkson, whose Farmer's Dog in Oxfordshire has been rammed since it opened last August, Rogers's The Devonshire off Piccadilly Circus is probably the most successful new/old pub of recent times. What was previously a Jamie Oliver restaurant is now winning rave reviews as a pub/restaurant. 'There's a lot of pessimism,' Rogers said. 'And I don't think it helps. You hear it all the time: the energy bills, the cost of beer, the tax, and all that. But misery is self-perpetuating and as a customer the last thing you want in a pub is a miserable atmosphere – to be thinking about politics or economics. 'Part of the problem is that so many are still brewery-owned. And those don't tend to be as good as the independents. One of the reasons for that is that the wages are so poor for someone to work a 70 hour week, in a stressful environment with all that responsibility for making it work.' Rogers goes on: 'A pub will only work if it's loved. People love pubs that love themselves and that starts with the publican – if they're not happy that radiates out. You want a good atmosphere, not a constant turnover of managers, no consistent identity.' But even the success of one pub can cause another to suffer. It emerged this month that the nearest pub to Clarkson's, The Three Horseshoes in Asthall, Oxfordshire, has been listed for sale since it was eclipsed and takings slumped. Writer Sam Cullen has just published a book, London's Lost Pubs. Reading his vignettes of their stories – a mixture of bad decisions and disastrous rebrands – is depressing. How some of them were allowed to go is mystifying. Take The Beatles's 'local', The Heroes of Alma was the nearest boozer to Abbey Road studios and the zebra crossing where dozens of Beatles fans turn up daily to be photographed. The fab four were regulars – and this alone you'd think would have secured its future. But it was converted into housing in 2002. Cullen says many pubs today seem to see redemption in food sales: 'They are under pressure to maximise income on all fronts so you don't find many these days that don't do food. But some are really just restaurants in the shell of an old pub.' This chimed with my recent experience in Suffolk: The Unruly Pig has been named gastropub of the year three times and its food was indeed sensational. But I left feeling that the title was a misnomer as it's not really a pub at all, just a very good restaurant. Similarly in gentrified Bruton, Somerset, the flagship destination for 'down from London' weekend users is the Michelin-starred Osip restaurant, where the set lunch costs £120 and the wine list starts at £50. It's set in the building that for 250 years previously was The Bull Inn, serving locals £4 beer, rather than media millionaires like Gary Lineker or Stella McCartney. Cullen went on: 'I think the key thing that stops a pub just being a restaurant is that you feel you can go in for just a drink. You don't need a reservation and someone holding an iPad isn't going to spring at you as you enter, asking 'Are you dining with us today?' 'I'm not a big fan of traditional pub grub or those now staple roasts which all come with big Yorkshire puddings and cost £17. But I do like stumbling on an interesting kitchen. The other day I was in The Stag's Head off Great Portland Street and they had a Greek pop up. Or The Coach and Horses in Leyton where I encountered a Sri Lankan kitchen.' Indeed, following the closure of The Cherry Tree, my 'new' local, will be The Osidge Arms, a 1930s inn which retains its pubbiness while offering rather good and very cheap Turkish food. But even if your local does switch its status to restaurant, this may not mean Michelin stars are heading its way: Camra, the Campaign for Real Ale, issued a recent warning that property developers are using a ruse to make it easier to get planning permission to convert pubs into housing if they convert them into restaurants first - a way of bending planning rules. And sometimes it seems that showing the pub is not financially viable might help here. Cullen continues: 'You do come across places where you get a frosty welcome – sometimes it can be literally cold – and you wonder if the place is being rundown deliberately to make planning changes easier.' Two novice publicans who are trying to take on board much of this advice are Annabel Cochrane and John Hunter who took on The Red Lion in the village she grew up in, Blewbury in Oxfordshire, four years ago. They poured their own money into it – buying out the brewery that had owned it for decades and turning it into a freehouse. And since then it's been a labour of love to try to turn its fortunes around. They now put on guest kitchen nights – offering rotating food themes, as well as quizzes, events, anything to attract interest and affection. Annabel said: 'We wanted to bring people locally back in. And then have a profile outside the village too. We offer food but also be fully open to people who only want a drink. We make sure we are open, from noon every day, with a fire in the grate and a warm welcome. 'It can feel like everything is stacked against you but we are determined to make it work. It's hugely challenging but enormous fun too.' But if you are already popular, it can be about gently tweaking a formula to keep it winning. Thomas Craig took over The Woodman, a cherished traditional pub with rotating cask ales, in rural Hertfordshire from his father, who had run it for 25 years, in 2006. He said: 'Any changes we make provoke uproar – when we replaced the old sticky carpet for example. So we have to be careful not to lose what makes the place special. We have made small adjustments like switching from cash only to offer contactless. But very cautiously. We still only serve the same sandwich we have for 40 years, a take-it or leave it cheese and onion toastie.' But back to The Cherry Tree. Comments on a neighbourhood Facebook page show how missed it is already: 'I had my hen night here', 'I worked here for years, it was a second home', 'I turned up for a drink the other day and was horrified to find it closed'. This is what we are losing – not just public houses but shared community experience. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
24-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Help, my historic local pub has turned into a brasserie
My local pub has closed down, to be converted into a brasserie. Ye Olde Cherry Tree in Southgate, north London had been trading since 1695 but today it's covered in scaffolding. It's unclear what building work is going on behind that scaffolding – it's Grade II listed so presumably there are some constraints. It's also unclear whether it will retain the historic name, but it's already listed on the brewery's website as 'Browns Southgate'. However its pub days are over. Although the closure prompted dismay locally, it has had minimal attention on a national or even London-wide scale, overshadowed as it was by the closure of another Ye Olde nearby, the rather better known Swiss Cottage. But even losing two historic pubs in the same part of the city in the same week is completely unremarkable: recent stats show that by the end of last year we were losing as many as 34 a month in England and Wales. Now the news that the average price of a pint is set to rise to £5.01 for the first time next month will cause more doom and gloom among the nation's pub goers and landlords struggling with rising costs. Pubs under threat A recent YouGov poll found only 50 per cent of the public had visited any public house in the last month – and 17 per cent hadn't been to one in over a year, if ever. Another study, by Altus Group, found that 412 pubs had gone out of business last year alone, the biggest fall since the pandemic obliterated hundreds. Pubs are seemingly under attack from all sides: the cost of living crisis, the tax man, and even, as The Crooked House in Staffordshire notoriously found, arsonists. The Sekforde in Clerkenwell is the latest to face attempts from neighbours to get it closed down for being too noisy. It survived this month – just. A £250 million government scheme, The Community Ownership Fund, which enabled groups of locals to take ownership of cherished pubs which might otherwise be demolished was wound up at the end of last year. There are now 200 such pubs but it looks like there won't be any more. What are the problems? So why are pubs having such a rough time and how can they avoid the fate of The Cherry Tree? Roger Protz, a former editor of The Good Beer Guide, has been writing about pubs for 50 years. He told me: 'At the end of the Second World War there were 100,000 pubs in this country. Now there are fewer than 40,000. You wouldn't get this in France or Germany – they wouldn't let their vineyards be torn up. But in the UK we let this happen. There are steps that the Government can take to stop this but they haven't. ' These include, he explains, removing the VAT on pub food and drinks, reducing business rates and cutting excise duty. 'It's crazy that you can go into a supermarket and buy lager for £1 – as cheap as water – but the same drink in a pub will cost you £5. When you buy a pint in a pub in England, a third of your money is going to the Government. But in Germany the equivalent tariff is just 2p. 'You wouldn't tax a Norman church until it's forced to close down – so why would you tax a Georgian pub in this way? These are heritage institutions and community resources that should be the pride of the country.' But amid the gloom, there are occasional positives: 'In my hometown, St Albans, we have recently seen Ye Olde Fighting Cocks [often said to be the oldest pub in the country], come back from closure. And three new pubs have opened too – there can be successes.' Some positives This idea of pubs opening or reopening leads me to Oisín Rogers. Aside perhaps from Jeremy Clarkson, whose Farmer's Dog in Oxfordshire has been rammed since it opened last August, Rogers's The Devonshire off Piccadilly Circus is probably the most successful new/old pub of recent times. What was previously a Jamie Oliver restaurant is now winning rave reviews as a pub/restaurant. 'There's a lot of pessimism,' Rogers said. 'And I don't think it helps. You hear it all the time: the energy bills, the cost of beer, the tax, and all that. But misery is self-perpetuating and as a customer the last thing you want in a pub is a miserable atmosphere – to be thinking about politics or economics. 'Part of the problem is that so many are still brewery-owned. And those don't tend to be as good as the independents. One of the reasons for that is that the wages are so poor for someone to work a 70 hour week, in a stressful environment with all that responsibility for making it work.' Rogers goes on: 'A pub will only work if it's loved. People love pubs that love themselves and that starts with the publican – if they're not happy that radiates out. You want a good atmosphere, not a constant turnover of managers, no consistent identity.' But even the success of one pub can cause another to suffer. It emerged this month that the nearest pub to Clarkson's, The Three Horseshoes in Asthall, Oxfordshire, has been listed for sale since it was eclipsed and takings slumped. Lost pubs Writer Sam Cullen has just published a book, London's Lost Pub s. Reading his vignettes of their stories – a mixture of bad decisions and disastrous rebrands – is depressing. How some of them were allowed to go is mystifying. Take The Beatles's 'local', The Heroes of Alma was the nearest boozer to Abbey Road studios and the zebra crossing where dozens of Beatles fans turn up daily to be photographed. The fab four were regulars – and this alone you'd think would have secured its future. But it was converted into housing in 2002. Cullen says many pubs today seem to see redemption in food sales: 'They are under pressure to maximise income on all fronts so you don't find many these days that don't do food. But some are really just restaurants in the shell of an old pub.' This chimed with my recent experience in Suffolk: The Unruly Pig has been named gastropub of the year three times and its food was indeed sensational. But I left feeling that the title was a misnomer as it's not really a pub at all, just a very good restaurant. Similarly in gentrified Bruton, Somerset, the flagship destination for 'down from London' weekend users is the Michelin-starred Osip restaurant, where the set lunch costs £120 and the wine list starts at £50. It's set in the building that for 250 years previously was The Bull Inn, serving locals £4 beer, rather than media millionaires like Gary Lineker or Stella McCartney. Cullen went on: 'I think the key thing that stops a pub just being a restaurant is that you feel you can go in for just a drink. You don't need a reservation and someone holding an iPad isn't going to spring at you as you enter, asking 'Are you dining with us today?' 'I'm not a big fan of traditional pub grub or those now staple roasts which all come with big Yorkshire puddings and cost £17. But I do like stumbling on an interesting kitchen. The other day I was in The Stag's Head off Great Portland Street and they had a Greek pop up. Or The Coach and Horses in Leyton where I encountered a Sri Lankan kitchen.' Indeed, following the closure of The Cherry Tree, my 'new' local, will be The Osidge Arms, a 1930s inn which retains its pubbiness while offering rather good and very cheap Turkish food. Failure can help the developers But even if your local does switch its status to restaurant, this may not mean Michelin stars are heading its way: Camra, the Campaign for Real Ale, issued a recent warning that property developers are using a ruse to make it easier to get planning permission to convert pubs into housing if they convert them into restaurants first - a way of bending planning rules. And sometimes it seems that showing the pub is not financially viable might help here. Cullen continues: 'You do come across places where you get a frosty welcome – sometimes it can be literally cold – and you wonder if the place is being rundown deliberately to make planning changes easier.' How to get customers back Two novice publicans who are trying to take on board much of this advice are Annabel Cochrane and John Hunter who took on The Red Lion in the village she grew up in, Blewbury in Oxfordshire, four years ago. They poured their own money into it – buying out the brewery that had owned it for decades and turning it into a freehouse. And since then it's been a labour of love to try to turn its fortunes around. They now put on guest kitchen nights – offering rotating food themes, as well as quizzes, events, anything to attract interest and affection. Annabel said: 'We wanted to bring people locally back in. And then have a profile outside the village too. We offer food but also be fully open to people who only want a drink. We make sure we are open, from noon every day, with a fire in the grate and a warm welcome. 'It can feel like everything is stacked against you but we are determined to make it work. It's hugely challenging but enormous fun too.' But if you are already popular, it can be about gently tweaking a formula to keep it winning. Thomas Craig took over The Woodman, a cherished traditional pub with rotating cask ales, in rural Hertfordshire from his father, who had run it for 25 years, in 2006. He said: 'Any changes we make provoke uproar – when we replaced the old sticky carpet for example. So we have to be careful not to lose what makes the place special. We have made small adjustments like switching from cash only to offer contactless. But very cautiously. We still only serve the same sandwich we have for 40 years, a take-it or leave it cheese and onion toastie.' But back to The Cherry Tree. Comments on a neighbourhood Facebook page show how missed it is already: 'I had my hen night here', 'I worked here for years, it was a second home', 'I turned up for a drink the other day and was horrified to find it closed'. This is what we are losing – not just public houses but shared community experience.
