London Inn, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

It's been a few years since I visited Cheltenham and surrounds for a weekend of pleasure and pints. Needless to say the pub scene has moved on a bit since then, but only a 'bit' so far as I can tell. Yes, there's a smart new craft beer bar and bottle shop on the funky Bath Road, and a similarly shiny new Brewery Tap near the rail station, but the town has already seen a craft beer bar fail, and the burgeoning micropub phenomena seems to have passed Cheltenham by up to now. Not necessarily a bad thing in my view given that micropubs are often the natural replacement for struggling traditional boozers rather than a welcome supplement to them. All this might suggest that Cheltenhams pubs are struggling that little bit less than most, and this may well be true. We've all been to pubs that by luck or design seem to have sidestepped the general decline in pub-going. Cheltenhams pubs seem to me to be as popular as ever with a loyal local crowd.

What has continued to change though is the steady, seemingly inexorable loss of the towns more traditional pubs, and often with it their traditional skittle alleys. Sometimes the result of a pub closing, more often though it's down to the creeping gentrification of the pub market that's happening almost everywhere, and the ever-present trend of chasing the (already saturated it seems to me!) food trade.

This is a longstanding trend of course, and one that I've noted many times before on this blog. The Brown Jug on Bath Road is a good case in point. When I visited some five years ago it had only just been refurbished, but the excellent skittle alley remained a firm fixture and the pub was very busy throughout the week with league and cup matches. Recently though, I discovered that the pub has been refurbished once again, this time the skittle alley converted to yet more dining space. A truly inexplicable loss of what was clearly a very well-used asset, and just the latest in a long line of similar losses.

Where once it was common for pubs throughout the town to have a skittle alley (sometimes more than one), with home 'A' and 'B' teams in both Mens and Ladies leagues, there are now just a fraction of the alleys available (albeit for a reduced number of teams). This has resulted in ever-more skittles teams being squeezed into a dwindling number of pubs and clubs. Hence there's often a log-jam of matches throughout the week, and a bit of a nightmare for those compiling the fixture lists. Now that the alley at the Brown Jug has gone, another half-dozen or so teams are either looking for a new home or will sadly, almost inevitably, call it a day. This of course, is how pub games eventually die...

So pubs continue to close or move upmarket, and alleys continue to disappear, but there's still plenty of interest in the game from locals of all ages, and plenty of teams still keen to play during the week. The Cheltenham Skittles League alone comprises over a dozen divisions for Mens and Ladies competition, added to which are several teams playing in Summer and Winter competition in the Cheltenham Civil Service Skittles League. But the fact remains, the number of alleys available, and the lack of commitment to the game shown by some local pub owners really doesn't reflect the demand that's still there from locals, which means the Cheltenham skittles tradition is becoming a less common, more specialist aspect of the pub scene. It's also being pushed ever further from the upmarket centre of town.

This shift of skittles to the suburbs and villages is sad and perhaps inevitable, but it's also clearly to the benefit of pubs like the London Inn which now hosts several teams, including of course some of those which have been exiled from their own 'home' alleys. Even so, chatting with the licensee of the London Inn confirmed that pubs in the Charlton Kings area have experienced a similar level of closure and gentrification to that seen in Cheltenham and elsewhere. Of the nine pubs listed in my 1990's copy of CAMRA's Real Ale In Gloucestershire, only a couple have actually closed, but of the four which are listed as skittles pubs, only one now remains. The Little Owl closed some years ago, and both the Merry Fellow and Royal appear to have removed their alleys in favour of the all-important food trade.

Of course dining is an increasingly important aspect of the London Inn's success, but thankfully it represents just one part of the pubs wide appeal. The current licensees have been at the pub for just a few short years, but have already made a terrific job refurbishing and revitalising what was a typically tired and neglected village local. The pub is now a proper all-rounder with a tidy beer garden to the rear, all the televised sport in the bar, and a quality food offering that's attracting visitors to the pub. It's also a proper Inn, with several recently refurbished letting rooms available.

I popped in early-doors Sunday for a pint whilst the staff were gearing up for the traditional Sunday Lunch trade. A scattering of locals were in for that other Sunday afternoon tradition, the televised football, and as Sunday traditions go, few are more welcome than the huge bowls of roast potatoes that appeared on the bar as I was mooching around with my camera. The skittle alley, which extends into the garden, is in use most weekday evenings for league matches, and in common with most of the alleys in this neck of the woods, it's smart and impeccably maintained. It certainly needs to be as this space also doubles as the pubs equally important function room.