Re: Railway Hotel burns down

[amck@thenetdr.com]

>Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2000 16:19:44 -0500
>From: Brian Cady <cadyb@home.com>
>
>Some sad news.  The Railway Hotel, site of Richard Barnes' old club
>where Pete first smashed his guitar, is reported to have burned down.
>It's the club in the gatefold of Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy.  This is from
>Andrew Johnson of Pete's BBS with the info coming from The Daily Star.

Sorry to hear it...I went on pilgrimages there during the '98 convention
and last December.  It used to have a hotel part and a bar (pub) part, with
the famous (to Who fans, at least) club being the basement. In Sep. '98 it
had become a dump, but a cheerful one. The hotel part had been shut down
and closed off, but the pub part was still functioning, with shabby
furniture but good Guiness and a very nice staff who talked with us about
The Who and gave us a tour including the club, which was normally locked.
It was for sale at that time, and the staff told us there was talk of it
being bought by a church, which might renovate it or might tear it down and
build something else on the lot.

Last December things had gone way downhill.  Clearly the sale hadn't gone
through.  The whole building was boarded up and derelict, with graffiti on
all the doors, and some of the the letters on the sign (WARREN'S) over the
club entrance had broken or fallen off.  If it burned I wouldn't be
surprised if it were some vagrant trying to keep him/herself warm with a
fire that got out of control.

Sad, but not surprising.  Thanks for the news, Brian, and goodbye, Railway...

Alan