Public House of Horrors

Around ten years ago I met up with some people who lived in Penryn, just outside Falmouth. Their pub of choice was the Cross Keys, run by a lovely couple named John and Rose. Great beer and food, clean, and of course strict Cornish adherence to the licensing laws.

But John and Rose left to travel the world beyond Penryn. The Cross Keys went downhill, became dirty and poorly-run, changed hands often. On a Sunday lunchtime, instead of huge, well-cooked roast dinners we were treated to pilled-up kids, plus the returning scumbags and derelicts who'd been barred by John and Rose. We took our business elsewhere, and the Cross Keys continued to sink into Penryn's wider mire; finally, it shut.

Boarded up, the Keys stayed on the market for many months; I passed it the other week, neglected and grimy. But I hear that finally it has a new owner, outside the licensed trade. The building will be used to provide a residential centre for people with behavioural difficulties.

Business as usual then.