New Delight, Jack Bridge
Posted by Sally Crabtree, Thursday, July 4, 2002In response to NY's(?) comments posted June 27th I would like to add that I agree the New Delight was a great pub and I understand it was sold to the current owners only three years ago as a very successfull business.
It is also true that the pub closed a few weeks ago due to a lack of custom. If the food and the beer was so good where have all the customers gone?
Having spent a lot of time in the New Delight over the last ten to fifteen years I have seen the New Delight managed in different ways by different sets of people. In all that time I have never seen the pub stop serving food or run out of beer on a frequent basis. A pub with no beer, no food, no ice and no music will not attract custom from people not loyal to the pub i.e walkers and other passing trade (which lets face it was where the pub made the majority of its money in the past).
The moaning you have referred to will come from those of the community who have supported the pub and continued to go in right up to the end. The ones who won't bother to moan are the customers from elesewhere who came in to buy meals etc, these people don't come back once they find there is no food they also tell their friends not to bother with the pub as well.
If the current owners would like to recapitalise on this asset they should sell it as a pub at a reasonable price (which will of course reflect the poor state of the accounts at present).
Everyone understands that the pub is worth a lot more as a house and that this would alleviate the financial problems of those who own it. However, whilst the community supported the owners whilst they were running the pub the support will not extend to allowing them to turn it into house. To let this pub shut just because one set of people couldn't make it successfull would be a ridiculous thing to happen.