The Red Lion Public House - News

Filthy fecker. Get a girlfriend.

 

So, if he can't chop down four of the trees will that still allow him to go ahead with his plan?

 

I would guess clearing the garden area of the trees is just a prelude to building on the garden for housing. Shufler could be the receiver selling off the assets of whatever company of Baz went bust

 

:bass: sold it to :sepp:

 

Its ME!!!

Free beer all door for the first watford fan through the door, only if accompanied by both great grandparents

 

herd itz gona b a tie

 

Further research, last listed for Sale 07/09/13 Estimated value £326,400 Mouseprice

 

It's a decent little plot and if it's now proved that a pub can't survive there, the owners could justifiably apply for a change of use to residential. Wouldn't be surprised to see a bunch of flats put up.

 

To be honest, it only proved Baz couldnt run a pub there

 

It's problems go back a long way before Baz owned it. It's a shame as its obviously in a great location for the footy crowd but needs funds to make it an inviting place to visit. Sadly it's stuck in the 1970's!

 

I bet Weatherspoons could make it work. Wack an extension on, gut the rest, cheap drinks, cheap good quality food and you would get all the hospital staff and visitors using during the week and at weekends, the football. Simple. Not to everyone's taste but it works.

Personally, I would rather the club got it again, knocked it down and opened the club shop and food vending facilities there.

 

If we as fans really want to retain it as a pub, the simple way to protect the property from being transformed into something else is to register it as an Asset of Community Value (ACV). This doesn't give you 100% protection but it means planning permission needs to be sought for any kind of change of use and gives local communities an opportunity to buy the pub as a community project - these are popping up all over the place these days and are very attractive.

Hope this helps. By the way you need 21 signatories, to submit your proposal for an ACV to the local authority (Watford District Council, I assume).

 

There's a perfectly good cafe in the hospital grounds (roughly 100 yards and set back on the left if you go in via Vicarage Road) which sells pre-made sandwiches/rolls/baguettes and a variety of freshly cooked meals. Soft drinks, tea & coffee too.

It's not expensive at all and had plenty of nursing staff as well as management types (suits, so I'm presuming), visitors and out-patients like myself whenever I've used it. It's spacious, clean and even when there are a fare few in there it never seems loud or crowded.

So I don't necessarily think staff, visitors or patients from the hospital would rush that bit further from where they are to anything new where the Red Lion is.

 

If anyone can make the Red Lion work then wetherspoons can

 

Are they going to be running it again then?

 

Too small for a Wetherspoons who prefer bigger units in High street locations with lots of footfall (Watford; Stanmore; Kingsbury; Rickmansworth - to name some local ones). Wetherspoons gave up in South Oxhey. To be a successful pub, the Red Lion needs local custom, with the football trade as the jam on top. Ok its got the square behind it, but you need people to walk there from a wider part of West Watford. So it needs to be a bit better than it is OR have a food type offer. Personally i think it would only work with lots of hard work and marketing. Would it be better than, (and attract people away from) other locals in Watford like Swan in Bushey, Railway Arms in Oxhey or the Golden Lion in Central. I doubt it would. Its a nice building but without parking would struggle as a restaurant/bar. As someone who often combines the football with a pub visit, it would need to be very good to make me divert from either the Watford Wetherspoons or the Bushey Swan. Cant see it happening, even as a club shop you would struggle with no stop off parking on that side of a busy Vicarage Road.

 

I always wanted to extend the North stand concourse under Vicarage Road and include access to the Lion ... can't see it happening anytime soon if they keep selling the place..

 

Yep, to sell at the prices they do wetherspoons need a high turnover so they are pretty much exclusively large establishments. Watford certainly needs alternatives to the glut of high street bars but not sure one which will be predominantly football fan based is it. Enough options in town for that. Agree it would be cool to turn it into a large Hornets shop. Probably cheaper to do what they're doing on site though.

 

Something like that might just work :sign15:

For instance the existing Vicarage Road End stand could be extended back over Vicarage Road creating greater capacity for the ground, and making that part of Vicarage Road a tunnel for vehicles and pedestrians alike. Furthermore it should include internal access from the ground into a new improved and extended Red Lion; which in turn would improve facilities for the stand.

The land attached to the pub extends approx half the length of the Vic End; and what would be ideal is that more land could be bought to extend the whole stand over the road; however I would have thought it would not be impossible to just do it in conjunction with the existing land owned by Red Lion Property.

The Red Lion, or what would possibly become "The WFC Supporters Club", would be open to members all year round, except during the game on match days as it would be exclusively for away supporters at those times.

The old wooden supporters club was open as a normal drinking club 7 days a week, and I was a regular match and non match day visitor when I lived in Watford Fields many years ago.

 

No need to tunnel. Just dig a big hole and put in a concrete structure with a very strong tarmacked roof. From memory the existing concourse is well below ground level isn't it?

 

Yep, decent cafe that. Lived off that place for a week last year after my little girl was born

 

The land was being cleared today
Let's make this clear. The pub was one freehold the land alongside was a separate freehold. I've seen no proof Baz owned both.
Plus under Ashton the club had permission to build two small industrial units on the land. Let's just wait and see.
Wetherspoons ? Well they did a superb job on the trent bridge Inn, which I shall be using for the Ashes test match.
Also worth noting is that two national pub chains wanted it before watford fc bought it.
Time will tell.

 

Looks like the Red Lion is going, received "preliminary" details today of a former public house opposite Watford General Hospital and Watford Football Club (can't think of any other properties this would be?) offering 2600 sq ft, on a subject to planning basis that would suit a Convenience Store Operator.
No further details but I guess that has to be the Red Lion.

 

Do you work in the planning department chunky?

 

No Abso, but in commercial property.

 

2600 sq ft sounds like a knock down and rebuild with commercial on the ground floor and 1 or 2 storeys of resi above?

 

I think this is a proposal to build on the land which was the old holding paddock, which was. Just grass with some billboards on it.

 

Given the lack of space to develop around the ground, I remain hugely surprised the club didn't buy it back. Would have made a decent club shop/ticket office at the very least, with the upstairs as extra office accommodation or sold off as flats. In the grand scheme of all the money being splashed around at the moment, it would have been a drop in the ocean. All very strange.

 

I for one think the Pozzos should buy it so we can use it as a trophy room/museum in 20 years time.

 

Too small. I'm reliably informed that we've put a bid in for the Harlequin or whatever the feck it's meant to be called now.

 

That would tie in with Lord Smith's post #30. Perhaps the pub is still available for our trophy room after all

 

Or perhaps boutique hotel for next years champions league visiting supporters

 

Full details through today, it is the pub that is being offered, looks like they are seeking offers to lease from commercial occupiers for a redeveloped retail store, which usually means that if they get no takers then a planning application may follow for change of use to residential.

 

They will need change of use planning permission from A3 to A1 anyway for retail. Without change of use the only alternative uses than a pub would be other food and drink like a cafe.

 

Drinking establishments are A4 use and can be changed into A1, A2, A3 use without planning permission. http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/changeofuse/