The Queens at Warwick on Eden

History

Opened A pub since 1792

A pub since

1792

Reopened

17 July 2013, after two years derelict

Scheme

No State Management link found

In 1970 the State Management Scheme proposed closing the Queen's Arms at Warwick-on-Eden. It has outlived that proposal by more than half a century, and it had been trading for two centuries before it. Mike Tuer's records put a pub on the site from the mid eighteenth century: it was listed in 1771 as the Boot Inn and became the Queen's around 1840, soon after Victoria came to the throne. Other accounts date it as a pub from 1792. Either way it sits in the same eighteenth-century bracket as the Near Boot, another Boot, and among the oldest on this site.

Historic England's gazetteer dates the present building to the early nineteenth century. The name is a generic loyal one; the timing points to Victoria, though nothing on record pins it to her, and it pairs neatly with the Kings Head in town. Thwaites have since shortened it to the Queens, while CAMRA and others still carry it as the Queen's Arms Inn, so both are in circulation.

It was a scheme pub, which is easy to miss: it does not appear on the commonly circulated lists or in the photographic record. The gazetteer has it acquired in 1917, and the scheme's own roll of 1920 has the Queen's Arms, Warwick, near Carlisle at number 109, two places from the George at Warwick Bridge up the road, so both village pubs were nationalised. It was let to a tenant in 1960, ten years before the closure proposal.

It came closer to the end much later. It had been derelict for over two years before reopening after a major refurbishment on 17 July 2013, the same derelict-then-rescued arc as the Horse & Farrier, and the same year the Apple Tree got its name back. Thwaites have refurbished it again since, with a new restaurant, garden and rooms.

It is a village inn now, a few minutes off the M6, with five newly decorated rooms, a warm lounge bar, a separate restaurant, a function room, a beer garden and a children's adventure playground, run by Tim, Mike and the team. Three Thwaites beers on the bar, and the steak pie gets the reviews.