Former Railway Hotel, Cinderford

Image: © John Winder Taken: 24 May 2020

Once one of the most prestigious pubs in Mitcheldean brewer Francis Wintle's estate, the hotel was directly opposite the town's little-used railway station. The fortunes of the pub inevitably diminished upon the cessation of passenger traffic at the station in 1958, although it soldiered on through the 1970s and 1980s as a Whitbread pub, and the 1990s as a venue called "Trax" (see what they did there?). Punch Taverns renamed the place "The Railway Tavern", but it eventually closed in summer 2007, with a plan in place to redevelop the site as residential apartments. In October 2011 the building "went on fire" in a suspected arson incident, and it remains in post-fire condition today, quietly mouldering away as a reminder of the days when Cinderford was connected, albeit by a thread, to the national rail network. The building was in slightly better condition, retaining its "Railway Tavern" sign, in December 2012, when Jaggery took Image] from the same spot.

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