That corner of Kingsland Road and Days Road in the Dings, Bristol, simply feels as if it ought to have a pub.
Instead, it has the skeletal remains of one.
Just the ground floor, now, breeze-blocked and whitewashed, buddleia sprouting from its brickwork.
You don’t have to look far to find pictures of The George Inn, as it was, looking relatively intact.
Flickr users Neil Hobbs and ‘Myk’ photographed it in 2007 and 2008 respectively, with upper floors and even some remains of the roof.
It only ceased trading in the 1990s, as far as we can tell. It doesn’t take long for an unoccupied, unloved building to start tumbling and tearing.
Go back further, to 1979, when Chris Petit was in Bristol filming his cult black-and-white British road movie Radio On and you can see it intact, in situ, surrounded by factories and gasholders.
In 1975, local pub guide authors Fred Pearce and David Wilson described it like this:
12 whiskys on display, also peach brandy, very good miniatures range – and the beer’s good as well. Old wooden benches, flowers on the bar, one main bar with two small intimate side rooms, piped music, very friendly staff behind the bar, man comes round in white coat selling cockles and mussels.
Look at historic maps on the Know Your Place website and there’s even more context.
When Bristol Council surveyed the city in the 1950s it recorded The George by name.
Across the road, where the Moor Brewery is now, was a general store and a ‘motor depot’.
The George shared its own block with a hardware store and a barbershop.
A little further along the road was a fish and chip shop, a grocer and post office.
This was a place where people lived.
On that map, though, the description of number 88 Kingsland road offers a glimpse of things to come: it says, simply, ‘Ruinous’.
