Vauxhall And I

I am rather worried to hear that the Royal Vauxhall Tavern pub, home to Duckie every Saturday for the past 10 years is now up for sale at auction on 20th September. It remains to be seen what this means for Duckie itself. As per usual in these situations, all sorts of speculation and rumour are flying round, probably from people who haven't got a clue what they're on about. Depending on who you listen to, it's going to be demolished and the land is having luxury flats built on it; it's going to be turned into a B&B; the current landlord is trying to get the money together to buy it himself; it's being sold with him as sitting tenant. Etc, etc, etc.

Of course I hope this doesn't mean the end of Duckie. The club could be relocated elsewhere given its popularity, but my past experience of "Duckie-elsewhere" eg on special one-off nights or events, is that the club just doesn't work properly elsewhere. Whether it's the griminess, the run-down decor, the feeling of faded glamour and the sense of a place which maybe used to be quite grand but has now seen better days, there is something about the RVT which fits symbiotically with Duckie. It's difficult to imagine one without the other. If Duckie was to find a new venue, I would like it to have the same feeling about it as the RVT, but be twice the size (which is still not that big actually), have a decent stage area for the acts, be easy to get to but not right in the centre of town, and have excellent aircon (the only significant difference from the RVT). Shouldn't be too tall an order, should it ?

I wonder if the new owners will be made aware of the structural defects to the back wall of the building caused by the male customers' habit of using it as an outdoor urinal over the years!