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Picture source: Chris Parkins

The Kings Head was situated in Little Bushey Lane. Despite being completely rebuilt in the 1990's, it will be demolished and replaced with a two storey block of flats. Closed February 2007.

Before it was rebuilt in the 1990s it was a very small pub (the car park and garden was much bigger). It was referred to locally as “The Snuggery” or simply “The Snug” because the bar area was so small. I drank in it many times but the occasion that springs to mind was that the first time I ever got drunk was in there. It was 1971 and I was just short of my 16th birthday (yes, I know I was under age) and I drank numerous pints of Double Diamond. I walked home O.K. down Little Bushey Lane to where I lived in Cotswold Avenue. It was when I got home that things went wrong – I felt sick and dashed upstairs and puked all over the toilet (not in it apparently) and then went into my bedroom and collapsed on the floor. My Father was not very happy. Local legend suggested that when the pub was being rebuilt, planning permission apparently called for the original façade to be retained in the new build. The rest of the building was demolished and the façade propped up with scaffolding. One night it collapsed. The local legend suggested that the developers undid the scaffolding so it would fall down so they could just build a brand new building without having the bother of incorporating the old into the new. Whether or not this is true I don’t know.

Bob Hibbert (June 2016)

I had a drink in there exactly once on the 24th of February, 1981 before it was completely rebuilt, and later demolished. I can be sure of the date because conversation in the bar was on the subject of the engagement of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer which had been announced earlier in the day. The conversation was however brief and I can recall only two words, “lucky bugger”.

John Parry (December 2021)

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