I did a post a couple of years back about the explosive end of one of my favourite Leeds pubs from those years when I consumed more alcohol than was probably good for me. The death of the local boozer is of course part of long and ongoing trend, of which I was reminded again recently by two things.

The first was this report today on how changes to the licensing laws could actually jeopardise more local community pubs, ironically as a result of the coalition governments much feted localism agenda.

Secondly, having joined the recently set up Leeds Forum, I saw and commented on this thread entitled Pub Nostalgia, which was started by the posting of a link to a Flickr group entitled Leeds Pubs Past & Present. I must admit to spending a hour or so clicking through the pictures looking for the pubs I used to frequent; many of which I discovered had now closed and were pictured boarded up and derelict. I am not sure why seeing closed pubs is such a uniquely saddening experience compared to other types of businesses, but I suppose it must be something to do with the memories one forms of times spent in pubs that do not translate to say a particular shop one used to go into. The Flickr group does have that feel of capturing the slow death of a particular kind of pub too. Best shut up before I lapse into more bouts of nostalgia.