Category Archives: RIPub

On the sad occasions when we hear about a local pub closing, these are our tributes.

RIPub: The Poet’s Corner

These articles are painful but necessary to write- it’s important to remember closed pubs. In this case, The Poet’s Corner in Cardiff, just over 100 years old and bearer of many names, is no more having been demolished.

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Through most of the years that we frequented the pub, it was known as the Tut and Shive and the main draw of the place was it’s four pool tables. As I’ve said before, there is no such thing as a perfect pub and this is an example of why not- I wouldn’t go to the Poet’s Corner every night and my ideal pub probably wouldn’t have a pool table. I do however like a game of pool and Monday night for about two years or so was pool night for myself and Gez and we were able to enjoy a few games of pool with some decent beer.

Perhaps the ideal pub is a collection of pubs- not a pub for all seasons but a pub for each season or each occasion. That is why it’s always sad to see a pub go- granted I haven’t visited The Poet’s Corner in a couple of years but if I do ever fancy a game of pool, it’s my go to pub and a reduction in the number of pubs means the one for the right occasion might not be there any more. It is getting to the point that some of the large breweries (Greene King in this case) are not so much sellers of beer but property development companies these days.

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DaveSteveGezGreat PaulMattMogiRich

R.I.Pub; The Gower

The Gower

1895 – 2014

In the Welsh bard’s centenary year

how inappropriate to have lost the Gower.

Not the peninsular but the pub in Gwennyth Street

where a minute felt like an hour.

For this was essentially

a good pub run badly.

Now trussed up, exterior cashiered,

closed for good rather sadly.

The pub survived two world wars,

the age of steam and the Tories.

Barmaids dined out on

Cardiff’s only pub snooker table stories.

A gathering ground for writers and poets

with only the stained glass to listen.

The Railway workers left long ago

this red bricked shunt yard of ambition.

R.I.Pub; The Gower

DaveSteveGezGreat PaulMattMogiRich