Basildon: Inns and Public Houses The Crown at
Langdon Hills and the Five Bells at Vange are two of the oldest surviving Public Houses in Basildon. The Crown is now
a Miller and Carter steakhouse run by the Mitchells and Butlers chain and occupies the second highest point in Essex. The Crown wasn't the only place to get a drink in
Langdon Hills. The Red Cow at Dry Street was open in 1843 later becoming a post office and general store and is now a
private residence. Laindon also had its fair share of inns with the Dukes Head, Fortune of War, Prince of Wales and the
Laindon Hotel. The Laindon Hotel which stood in the High Road between Durham and Aston Road was built in 1896 as part of a
racecourse project that never reached fruition. It closed in the late 1980s and was demolished in 1991. The Barge in Vange, which
closed in 2015, is believed to date from around 1840 though an inn may have occupied the corner spot with Clay Hill Road from
a much earlier date. Pitsea has had two Railway Hotel's, and at Laindon, the original Fortune of War at the Junction with
Noak Hill Road is now a vehicle wheel specialist dealer. Public Houses opened since 1951 The Crane in
Denys Drive, Fryerns was the first new public house to be built in the 1950s following the areas designation as a new town. More
soon followed including the Plough and Tractor, Castlemayne, Joker, Winged Horse, Bulls Eye, Van Gogh, Long Riding, the
Owl and Pussycat, Painted Wagon, Jolly Friar, Treble Chance, The Highway (New Yorker) and the Moon on the Square, opened on former
Market Square shops opposite the town centre's market. In 1979, Great Chalvedon Hall was converted from a private residence to a
public house. In the 2000s a number of demolitions to public houses in Basildon has taken place and these include the
Commodore, the Bull (Powerhouse) at Vange, Double Six, Jolly Cricketers, Fortune of War at Laindon and in 2013 the Railway
at Pitsea. Four of those former public houses were replaced with residential developments. |
