Save The Maze Campaign

By now you will have probably walked passed the Forest Tavern and seen the boards up in the windows. You may have heard from your mates that the last gig has been played at The Maze and if you were there the other Wednesday you may have even witnessed and tasted the last of the real ales to be drawn up from the deep sandstone cellar. Its official, last orders have well and truly been called on one of Nottingham's classiest pubs and one of its top venues.

Of course pubs shut all the time... and not just because of the archaic licensing laws we have in this country. One pub chain sells on to another, who re-open it in a few months with new wall paper, an array of old gardening tools, or boots or horse brasses added to give a new feel, and wait for the old regulars to slowly drift back. Before you know it, the old place is just as it was. The Forest Tavern is no exception. Since it was built well over 100 years ago by John Ellis and Bendigo, the famous bare knuckle boxer, it has re-emerged in several guises. A museum with various curios including a cat with real hands, a seedy local with illegal bare knuckle boxing going on till at least 1973, it still has the ring,  a union social club, a gay club (The Pink Triangle), a real ale night club and of a local with perhaps the finest selection of continental and traditional English beers in the county. 

But not this time. This time Tynnemill, the erstwhile guardians of real ale and traditional pubs in the East Midlands, in contrast to their "campaigning for real ale" past, have decided that their interests will be best served by selling The Forest Tavern/The Maze, lock stock empty barrels, to a property developer Mega Close Ltd, to be turned into student flats. It is their intention that the doors will never again be open, whether it be to the regulars quaffing Abbot Ale in the Forest Tavern, or the local and touring bands, fringe theatre groups, poetry groups private parties, Nigel's Cheesy Disco, in The Maze.

Who cares? What can we mere workaday mortals do about the goings on in a medium-sized business preparing for the mass retirement of its directors? They need the money, they will sell and that is that, isn't it? Not for the first time, a facility that has added greatly to the cultural of Nottingham, that has helped to create many fringe theatre productions, encouraged local poets and bands of all descriptions, brought touring bands to Nottingham from all over the world, and has recently given rise to the Nottingham Goose Fringe Festival, is being lost. And we can do nothing, as usual.

So lets sit down with a few treasured memories and lament another sacrifice in the way of progress, curse the realities of market forces and shift our pension investments from Tynnemill to Mega Close Ltd.

But just a minute! What is this coming up over the hill? Save the Maze Campaign!! Are they mad! Do they know what they are taking on? Surely its too late for that?

"Well you see it's like this," said Guy Jones Chair of Save The Maze Campaign. "They are going to take away my local and my favourite venue. Am I going to stand by and let them do it without a fight? Am I going to bow down and let the profit motive walk all over a corner stone of my life? Of course not. This time we can do something about it."

Then with a passion born from a cause far from lost, "Mega Close Ltd, you know that company that's responsible for all those student flats down Mansfield Road, who are planning to rip the place down, have not yet actually bought it. They haven't got and we are reliable informed with the right approach won't get planning permission. We and quite a lot of other people, have informed them of this.

"We are politely warning them that they will not be allowed to make a profit here. And if they go ahead with the purchase, they will make a considerable loss. Planning permission for student flats in that area is no longer a forgone conclusion and shortly it will be a no-no. All it takes is enough people to write to them and tell them that, and should the time come, to object to planning permission, and the building at least will be preserved.

"Then it is a matter of time, effort in selling the concept to the right people, and before you know it ... the dream of the Maze reborn. Who knows...?"

This is all far from pie in the sky, flogging a dead donkey kind of stuff. Those involved with running the campaign are not the sort to waste their time making idle gestures. The feeling against any more student flats in that area are running high. The locals don't want them, the council don't want they and the business up Mansfield Road don't want them. Planning permission will be far from easy to get. If denied, the only real value of the property will be as a licensed premises once more.

The Campaign know that they are in for a long haul, but they also know that they can win. It is heartening to see an effort being made to save something like The Maze. It also give us hope the next time one of our treasured venues or pubs or anything else for that matter is threatened with closure.

If you want to get involved with Save the Maze Campaign e-mail savethemaze@aol.com