Three weeks ago the Crown and Thistle was covered in Scaffolding.
Two weeks ago the scaffolding came down.
In two weeks time the Crown and Thistle will re-open for another chapter in its long and illustrious history.
The Grade II Listed 17th century Coaching Inn, which John Rushkin called home for a while, and where Douglas Fairbanks Junior parked his boat, and which became a Berni Inn in the 1960s, will re-open on 27th November following a £1.8m refurbishment.
It is the 8th property opened by Oakman Inns, who have just won the Pub Company of the Year award – organised by Restaurant magazine.
And the difference before and after scaffolding is …. ? I’m assuming just new paint.
Looking forward to visiting and hope it doesn’t disappoint me as did Weatherspoons (ghastly evening visit which lasted all of 5 mins as place was heaving with an uncomfortable atmosphere, complete with bouncers) 🙁
well those spam comments don’t even seem clear as to what they are spamming.
Any idea if the ‘Stocks’ bar will return with SKY Sports screens?
Distinct lack of places to watch live sport in the town centre at the moment!
Agree’s Ste. I cannot believe that next to no pubs in Abingdon town centre have Sky Sports. Surely there’s a gap in the market to make up for loss of trade to Wetherspoons…or is it just easier to moan about the lack of customer loyalty/support as seems to be the case from certain places?
Looks like I’ll be going into Oxford on Saturday to watch the game.
If you compare it to their other places locally i can’t imagine it will have any tv’s, should just be a nice bar with nice drinks, Nags beware
Ste and rugby fan – I too am facing the same dilemma re Eng v NZ game. Strange that SO many pubs have dropped Sky Sports. The only place I can find showing the game is the Boundary House. And I don’t think the revamped C & T will have sports bars – they are moving upmarket. Although no-one seems to have mentioned that rugby fans are a much nicer breed of sports fan all round!
I hope it is going to have a good selection of Real Ale. The beer selection in Abingdon has improved so much in recent years, mainly due to Loose cannon opening and landlords realising their beer is superb.
I’m pretty sure the cross keys have sky sports
What about the Midget and the College Oak? A bit out of town but most people probably live within reach of one or the other..
Cross keys no longer have Sky sports,
Midget.Oak and Boundary house do,as well as the Grapes and Black swan,
We’ll my dear friends, have you thought of watching the rugby down at THE RUGBY CLUB. It has both SKY and BTsport and the ENGLAND game will be shown LIVE on their big screen and the WALES game will be recorded to be shown afterwards. The Club and bar will be open from 12:30 with the first kick off at 14:30. For those of you who don’t know where we are, we’re in Lamrbrick Way, off of Preston Road OX14 5TJ. We look forward to seeing you all. For more info please email:- bar@abingdonrufc.co.uk
God how awful. Sky sports and football. A nice quiet eating house for me. Looked inside the new Weatherspoons and saw all the fruit machines. Not tempted to eat in there either. The spam is weird. Then spamsters are weird.
I think its the same people that have the Blue Boar in Witney – I went in there the other week – decent pint and a decent selection of ales.
Tracey – thanks for the heads up re ARFC. May well wander down!
Why don’t you watch TV at home?
My pet hate is to go to a pub to find numerous mega huge TV’s blaring out footie or some other god awful sport that is thrust down ones throat, when all I’d like to do it eat, drink and chat.
Having made a lot of pubs one big open bar space, wouldn’t it have been better to have kept a playroom especially for sports fans and leave the rest of the pub to mere mortals. Wonder how it would go down if women clamoured round massive TV’s in pubs to watch Strictly and have Bruce Forsyth bleating out (mind you I’d leave the pub too)…..
By the way, the College Oak does indeed have Sky TV … 5 of the damned things …. unfortunately discovered.
spam comments removed. a few get through under the radar now and then.
They’ve practically had to rebuild the building I was talking to the workman at Crumbs cafe. Always loved the Stocks bar
Just in reply to Houdini could I put forward the very simple defence that the whole idea of restoration is to restore not simply change! As David says we have pretty much had to rebuild the place – several parts of it were quite simply falling down. Beyond the restoration we have also worked really hard to improve the space and the finishes. I hope you all like it. We think it looks great but I will leave it to a neutral to have the last word at the following address:
http://www.thebestof.co.uk/local/abingdon//community-hub/blog/view/the-heritage-of-abingdons-crown–thistle-hotel-is-in-caring-hands
The Cross Keys doesn’t have Sky sports – too expensive – and I understand the Keys is up for sale