A decade of pub closures in High Wycombe amid hospitality crisis

It’s a difficult time for the hospitality industry all around and local boozers have definitely not been exempted from pressures imposed by the cost of living crisis and a rise in business rates.

Data released by commercial real estate analysts the Atlus Group shows that a total of 383 pubs, more than two a day, “vanished” from UK towns and cities between January and June this year – a number almost as high as for the whole of 2022, when 386 pubs were lost.

Further whittling down has revealed that 30 pubs across the Southeast region of the UK, including Buckinghamshire, closed their doors for good in the first half of 2023.

In an effort to not forget the much-loved public houses of the not-so-distant past, we’ve used the new research as an excuse to take a look back at all the pubs that closed their doors in High Wycombe over the last decade – some for good, others that have been reopened since and one that is still the subject of a local campaign for its reinstation.

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22 pubs in High Wycombe that closed their doors between 2013 and 2023:

• The Black Boy at 113 Amersham Road – renamed The Terriers in 1999 and closed in 2013 when it was converted into a vet’s surgery.
• The Bell and Mast on Brindley Avenue – closed in 2013.
• The Gordon Arms on Gordon Road – closed in 2013.
• The Iron Duke on Duke Street – closed in 2013.
• The Golden Fleece on Hatters Lane – closed in 2013 when the building was sold to Tesco.

• The Wendover Arms on Desborough Road – closed in 2013 and converted into a hotel.
• The Antelope on Church Square – closed in 2014, now reopened as a vegan pub.
• The Downley Donkey on Plomer Green Lane – closed in 2014 and sold to Morrisons.
• The White Lion at 16 Crendon Street – closed in 2014 now operating as Scorpio’s Bar.
• The Happy Wanderer on Arnison Avenue – closed in 2015 after the building was acquired by Wycombe Islamic Society.

• The Jolly Bodger on Chairborough Road – closed in 2015.
• The Half Moon at 103 Dashwood Avenue – closed in 2016.
• The Hobgoblin on the High Street – closed in 2017 and reopened the same year as The Three Tuns.
• The Red Lion on London Road – closed in 2018.
• The Beaconsfield Arms at 110 Hughenden Road – closed in 2018.
• The Junction Pub on London Road - closed in 2018 and has been turned into flats.
• The Beech Tree on Amersham Road – closed in 2021 and reopened in 2023 under new management.

• Derehams Inn in Loudwater – closed in 2021, the subject of a local campaign to save Loudwater’s last remaining pub.
• The George and Dragon in West Wycombe – closed in 2022.
• The Antelope on Church Square – closed in 2022 and reopened in the same year.
• The Chequers Inn in Wheeler End – closed in 2022.
• The Crown Radnage on City Road – closed in 2023 and was bought by a new landlord in the same year.  

Are there any pubs we’ve missed out? Let us know in the comments below.