Cheers to the glory days

✒ YOUR story: ‘Pub fight: Flats approved in blow for campaigners’ (November 18) told us of the likely demise of The Windmill pub in Windmill Hill despite the efforts of local residents who had campaigned to keep it open.

This is sad news, for soon there will be very few traditional ‘boozers’ open that I can recall from the alcohol-fuelled days of my youth.

Not least amongst many were The Cat and Wheel/ Bear and Rugged Staff in the vicinity of Castle Park, and The Garrick’s Head in the centre. These are but a few of many iconic ale-houses which have been demolished in postmodernist Bristol following the Second World War.

I bemoan the characterless environment of their replacements such as: bistros/gastro/micropubs/wine bars etc which have all the charms of what? Not the colourful idiosyncratic taprooms where individuals downed their dimple-filled glasses with gusto on a Friday night!

Now we have the genteel straightglassed besuited Napoleon brandy/ gin-and-tonic fraternity who would probably turn up their sensitive noses at the downtown sawdust environments I used to frequent long, long ago.

All of this I would claim has led to a sanitised bland city devoid of much of its character which prevailed in the glorious hilarious days of the British boozer!

Planning permission has been secured to turn The Windmill pub into flats, which is par for the course of a council dedicated to high-rise flats/offices, and the eradication of what they no doubt considered Bristol’s unspeakable past. I loved it!

R L Smith

Knowle