Cardinal Pub owners break their silence

Its been some weeks since Independent Catholic News started a campaign to save the Cardinal Pub behind Westminster Cathedral. We received dozens of letters, and more than 1,100 people signed our petition. We sent this to Samuel Smith's in Yorkshire with an accompanying letter. Alas there was no response and the new pub has quietly opened on the site.

Although the owners haven't seen fit to reply to us - a letter from an ICN reader across the Atlantic in Washington DC, USA, sparked a speedy response from their company secretary, Mr Mark Butler. She has kindly forwarded it on to us.

Mr Butler wrote on 9 June:

Dear Ms Jensen,

Thank you for your letter of 30 May which I received today.

We carried out considerable research and gave a great deal of thought to changing the name of the pub concerned prior to its re-opening as the Windsor Castle last week. You may perhaps be interested to know some of the history behind the name change.

The pub name changed from The Windsor Castle to The Cardinal in 1963 at the suggestion of the late Mr T Brindley who was the landlord of the pub for many years. When a major redesign of the pub was undertaken, which was presumably in preparation at the time of the name change, there was a significant amount of scarlet silk (wallpaper) included in the scheme which the designers thought appropriate to the name change.

We studied the plans and old leases for the property and the land has never belonged to the Roman Catholic Church and contrary to popular opinion it would seem has never had any connection with Cardinal Manning who, because of his hate of alcohol and the evils of it, protested against the opening of public houses in the 19th century.

Greenwood's Map pf London 1830 Second Edition shows a building on the site that was not there at the time of the 1827 First Edition. The London Metropolitan Archives have a Sun Fire Insurance Register for 1 March 1837 naming John Thomas Blazdell as victualler of the Windsor Castle. The street next to the pub is called Windsor Place. The pub was rebuilt as the Windsor Castle in 1897 and in our current refurbishment we have restored the interior based on the physical evidence of the original layout and structure which was revealed on site following the stripping out of the premises and on the plans in the 1897 building lease. (complete with men-only bar, sawdust on the floor and spitoons?- ed)

Having removed the stage-set interior features that were installed in the 1960s we would hope that should you ever have the opportunity to visit the pub again you might view our scheme as having been a careful and sensitive restoration of the pub's Victorian splendour. It was on this basis that we felt it only appropriate to return the pub to its historic name.

With best wishes
yours sincerely

Mark Butler
Company Secretary
The Old Brewery, Tadcaster, N Yorkshire LS 24 9SB

Judging from this letter, it seems Sam Smith's are hoping to attract customers from overseas, rather than keep their old local regulars.

For more information see: www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=18165