Trolley 217

Captured on the south side of East Street, between bus stops. Perhaps abandoned by an inhabitant of one of the houses on this stretch, just short of what used to be the King's Arms public house.

A public house which has been closed for some time now. One assumes the owner of the site cannot agree with the council about the division of spoils of redevelopment. At one time a Youngs house and the last Youngs' tenant was pushed out, as I recall, by unrealistic rents. Unrealistic in the sense of what a public house could reasonably pay, presumably rather less than a block of flats, the comparator that the accountants at Youngs would use.

I associate to stories of old-fashioned business men in provincial towns hanging onto freehold assets for reasons of sentiment and standing, long after they had stopped providing a decent return. A time and place where sentiment and standing had a higher rating than the books of the accountants.