Lovers of everything squiffy and wonky, we’ve got frankly terrible news. Britain’s wonkiest pub, The Crooked House in Himley, West Midlands, has closed its doors.
Originally built as a farmhouse all the way back in 1765, The Crooked House became a pub in the 1830s. The reason the building is so slanted is due to mine subsidence, which is what can happen when coal is extracted from the ground nearby. When Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries bought the pub in the 1940s, they made it structurally safe and bestowed the venue with a new name worthy of its elite levels of wonk: The Crooked House.
Until it closed, The Crooked House’s marvellous wonkiness drew visitors and admirers from all over the world. With one side of the building 1.2 metres lower than the other, its bartenders were famous for an optical illusion where they could make marbles and coins look like they were rolling up the bar.
The Crooked House was put up for sale earlier this year by its owner Marston’s, but it appears that it failed to attract the interest of someone looking to keep it running as a pub. The pub’s Facebook page said: ‘Marston’s have sold the site to a private buyer for alternative use, that is all we know. This is just to update the page so nobody makes any wasted journeys to the site.’
Whichever way you look at it, it’s pretty sad news. Here’s to hoping this isn’t the last we hear of The Crooked House!
Did you see that London’s XOYO is launching a brand-new club in this UK city?
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