The above image says it all really. Once upon a time the sight of the Old General declared Welcome to Hyson Green, it is sad to think that nowadays the sight of the Old General declares wearily You're fucking welcome to it. I have given up on the campaigning to try and get the statue dressed up as Santa every Christmas which is sad but inevitable because there are very few people in the area who care enough about the history of the area to make it happen.
The statue of Victorian era 'lunatic' Benjamin Mayo has stood above the porch of the pub for years and the Santa tradition is over one hundred years old, the chain only breaking in recent years. I took these photographs yesterday afternoon to show how he now has been left to decay. Nobody knows who even owns the building nowadays as it was apparently sold by BSP Holdings. At least if they no longer own it the danger of it burning down in mysterious circumstances have disappeared, which seems to be what happens if they can't get their own way regarding development.
Today the entire building is waiting to be condemned as it is only a matter of time before the whole thing falls to bits and the statue comes crashing to the ground. What is sad though is the fact that the pub is still representative of the area in that nobody cares anymore. Being very careful how I phrase this, the people who live in the area these days don't know or care about the significance of Hyson Green because they have only been there a short time. Even when I did succeed in the final years of the tradition to get the costume on the statue, there weren't too many shits given by the residents. Pubs don't play a part in the culture of the area because certain religions don't drink alcohol, and even if they sold soft drinks I can't blame them for not wanting to drink in what eventually became a bit of a dump. According to my dad it was always a rough pub, but I'd take a rough pub in the 1950s over a rough pub of today; one imagines the Arthur Seatons of Bobbers Mill Road and surrounding streets propping up the bar after work which is a much better picture than a bunch of louts playing pool in baseball caps and their tracksuit bottoms hanging down below arse-level.
The plans to turn the building into shops seems to have been forgotten about and as the ownership of the building isn't known then all we can do is wait and see. The whole of Radford Road only has one pub now which seems to be doing okay, and in finding that old blog to link back to I realise that I have written these thoughts down before.
A while ago we made enquiries about leasing the building with a view to smartening it up (no caps, no tracksuits) and concentrating on food, real ale, and live music. This was when it was still owned by a pub company and they wanted a ridiculous amount of rent, in hindsight it was probably such a high figure because they didn't really want to keep the place as a pub and couldn't wait to flog it to developers. Christmas in Hyson Green will never be the same again.
No podcast this week.
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May housekeeping
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