Our popular Saturday morning cafe is running again
More information...The main purpose of the Pantry is to make food that would otherwise be thrown away accessible to people who live locally who can make use of it.
More information...Explore your creativity -- all levels welcome.
Local artist Mike England holds life drawing classes at the community centre.
More information...The JCA represents residents on local issues, organizes events, and runs the community centre. Membership is FREE.
More information...NEWS ITEM
Jericho pubs have been toppling just like the skittles that used to be heard clattering in the back yard of the Globe in Cranham Street. The latest casualty is the Globe itself. The pub has been shut for around six months. Landlady Jean McDermott had been declared bankrupt, after a £300 VAT debt from a previous pub had escalated to £32,000. The brewery promptly shut the pub and, although husband George was solvent, the brewery would not let him take over and sold the pub to a developer.
This is the latest twist in the Globe’s convoluted history. Listed as one of 25 pubs and ale houses in Jericho in 1870, it was demolished and rebuilt in the 1930s. Until 1999 it was owned by Morrells Brewery. Then it passed to a new company, Morrells of Oxford, before being transferred to a subsidiary, QP Bars ,which subsequently was controlled by Dorset brewers Eldridge Pope. Eldridge Pope claim that they tried to find a suitable tenant but failed. Meanwhile the building was taken over by squatters who did considerable damage.
In November, Eldridge Pope sold the building to Novello Properties – a real estate company controlled by the Foulk family. They are no strangers to pub conversions, having bought the New Inn at 46 Nelson Street in 1990 and let it to architect Ray Foulk who also ran the environmental education programme Blue Planet from that building.
In November, however, the New Inn building was sold to Kevin Maxwell, someone else with money problems (though on a grander scale than Jean’s). Having sold his rural mansion to satisfy his creditors he has moved in with wife Pandora and their seven children. Good to see that some of the children are going to St. Barnabas School.
Ray Foulk is investigating the possibilities for the Globe. He says that it is unlikely to be a pub again. “The brewery could not find a new tenant and the pub needed serious money to bring it up to current standards. This is a question of social change. It is difficult to drag people away from their TV sets. There is an idea that we could relocate our enviromental charity to the ground floor”. This could be combined with flats above.
Getting planning permission would mean demonstrating that there was no need for a pub – which would doubtless be disputed by former regulars. Novello would also have to prove the pub was not financially viable. George McDermott says it was. “It was going very well. In four years I built a new house out of that pub”. Having showed them round himself, he also says that at least ten people were interested in taking it over.
Ray Foulk will shortly present ideas and invite comments from local residents. Meanwhile if you have ideas on how the building should be used you can write to Ray Foulk, The Globe, 59-60 Cranham Street, Oxford OX2 6DD.