This feature combines Explore Buxton’s memories of former pubs and bars with historical sources. Some premises were later used under a different name.

Illustrative photograph: Amie Johnson / Unsplash.

Buxton has seen the loss of many legendary pubs over recent years – but how many do YOU remember? Do you have fond memories of anywhere in particular? We’d love to hear your stories…

1. Royal Forester, Fairfield

A mainstay of taking in a pint or 7, this classic pub was a favourite amongst the Fairfield community with many of you no doubt with fond memories of the place. Now demolished sadly…

Closure date: this article originally gave 2011; CAMRA lists March 2012. CAMRA says the building was demolished around 2016.

2. Robin Hood Inn, London Road

The Robin Hood Inn on London Road was a quieter alternative to the pubs in town. It was a Marston’s pub before Premier Inn acquired the site in June 2014. The pub was demolished and a Premier Inn hotel opened there in March 2016.

Year closed: 2014.

3. The White Lion, Holker Road

Many remember the White Lion’s 1980s heyday and its pool table. The Derbyshire Historic Environment Record says the pub closed in 2011 and was used as an artisan market in 2021. The Grade II-listed former inn was subsequently restored with grant support.

Year closed: 2011

4. Charlie’s Bar, Spring Gardens

We remember Charlie’s as part of The Grove Hotel in the 1980s and early 1990s. Our original feature said it closed in 2008 and that the space later became The Slopes bar and then The Springs café bar in 2011. We enjoyed the bar snacks when it was The Slopes.

Closure year reported in the original feature: 2008.

5.Chatters, Market Place

We remember Chatters in the early to mid 1990s as having three floors, with Castaway a popular drink. Mixed with cider, it was known as a Blastaway.

6. The Bakers Arms, West Road

A cosy pub on West Road and a favourite with many of us. The Lost Pubs Project records its closure in 2008; it was later converted to housing.

Year closed: 2008

7. Project X, The Old Courthouse

We remember Project X as a café-bar in the Old Courthouse area in the 2000s. The original article reported its closure in 2012; Buxton Brewery’s Tap House later opened at the Old Courthouse in 2013.

Closure year reported in the original feature: 2012

8. St. Ann’s Hotel bar, The Crescent

St Ann’s Hotel occupied the western end of the Crescent. At the eastern end, the Great Hotel became the Crescent Hotel in 1878 and closed in 1935. The former Crescent Hotel became a clinic, later part of the Devonshire Royal Hospital, before the county council acquired that end of the building in 1970 for offices and the library. St Ann’s continued as a hotel until 1989; the Crescent became vacant in the early 1990s and reopened as a hotel and spa in 2020. See the Derbyshire Record Office history and contemporary reporting on St Ann’s closure.

Year closed: 1989

9. Beltane, Hall Bank

Beltane was a popular Hall Bank music bar in the 2000s. CAMRA records Beltane and 53 Degrees North as previous names for the premises now known as Lubens.

10. Springs bar, Old Hall Hotel

We remember Springs at the Old Hall Hotel as a late-night venue playing house music in the mid-1990s. Our original feature recalled that entry was for people aged 23 and over.

Closure year reported in the original feature: 2014.

11. George Hotel, The Square

The Grade II-listed George Hotel on The Square closed as a pub in 2007. A 2017 visitor accommodation report said the Crescent Hotel’s developers had acquired the George in 2007 with a view to including it in the wider spa quarter. The restored Crescent reopened separately in 2020.

Year closed: 2007

12. The Prince of Wales, Fairfield Road

We remember the humorous signs chalked on the blackboard outside this traditional pub. The building was vacant from 2011, and in 2014 planning permission was granted for its conversion. It is now home to Mellor & Smith Funeral Directors.

Year closed: 2011

13. The Devonshire Arms, The Common, Fairfield

The Devonshire Arms on North Road overlooked Fairfield Common and the golf course. CAMRA records that it closed around 2014 and was converted to a private dwelling.

Year closed: around 2014.

14. The Bus Club, Market Place

We remember the Bus Club on the Market Place, later Level 2 nightclub, as a favourite with locals. Jen recalls being taken in by her dad for a shandy at about four years old.

15. The Gaslight, Market Place

Affectionately referred to as the ‘gasbag’; many a conversation took place every Friday and Saturday night in the Eagle Dutches bar where we’d ask one another the question – ‘are you bagging it?’. The club was tiny in its earlier, late 80s / early 90s days and the standing area by the dance floor was where you’d prepare deliver your best chat up lines. We remember an expansion in the early 1990s when the upstairs bar was added. They served cheesy chips from the hatch too for those late night snacks. Local reporting says the venue was later known as Trunk.

16. Sports Bar at Chatters/Burlingtons Market Place

Downstairs at Chatters/Burlington in the mid-90s was quite a scene. The pre-club ritual would be to come here to exchange stories of nights out and which house club they were about to venture off to in Manchester, Sheffield, Mansfield and the like. We also remember the ‘Sound Boy’ drum ‘n’ bass nights here in the 2000s.

We’d love to hear your memories of any pubs in Buxton that are now long forgotten – get in touch on our Facebook page!