After memories of passing this place and being dropped off in the carpark back in the college days, seeing the pub boarded up meant it’s been on the list to explore for quite some time.
At the first opportunity, teaming up with Tiny Urban Exploration, we were there!
The pub is now unfortunately stripped of most interesting features and nearly everything you can imagine smashed to pieces by the local youths. Kindly resulting in another injury for UrbexDevil for the second time in a row… cheers kids! Make shift wrapping up the cut to stop blood dripping everywhere we pressed on.
Rather amusingly as we exited the building and proceeded to take external photos, the local police spotted us. After a rather amusing conversation on how they thought they were going mad seeing flashes and a long minor issue of a stop and search, we were told that kids were arrested only a few hours before us for smashing the place to pieces.
Onto the history side now!
The John Gilpin pub has been trading since 1878, owned by McMullens closed in 2014 after more than 125 years of trading. Despite a large investment years before, the land has been sold to developers and its demolition is imminent.
The pub was named after a poem made famous by William Cowper in 1782.
