To not want to live next to a (village) pub?

[bluebellsandcustard]

Dilemma alert! Found house of my dreams, great in every way, but it's next to a currently closed pub in the village. It's being sold soon as a going concern, with a slim possibility it might get planning for residential conversion.
I have small children.
AIBU to consider not buying the house because of the pub?

One of our village pubs has regular late licenses and has noisy music, fireworks and lots of (admittedly) happy people having a good time. I would hate to live near it.

On the other hand it may be ok without too many events

PLEASE don't buy a house next to a pub if you don't want the noise of living next to the pub. There is an ongoing issue where I live with idiots people who bought houses in the very pretty, packed full of pubs part of our very small, historic town during Covid (they all moved out from London) and who seem to have thought the pubs would never go back to normal opening again. They are currently campaigning to have ridiculous restrictions put on the pubs to the alternating amusement and annoyance of everyone else who actually wants to live in a town with thriving businesses and a social life.

Don't move next to a pub if you don't want noise from a pub.

So no, you shouldn't buy it, because there is a chance the pub will reopen.

The noise from a beer garden, late loud revellers and the biggest is the smell of smoke wafting about.

Not a chance.

Please please don’t buy next to a pub then get annoyed and spend your life complaining and making the landlords life a nightmare.

If a pub has been standing there (likely for decades - 100+ years depending on pub) you make your choice if you buy near it.

If you have kids don’t even think about it - we live in a world where many many grown adults do not consider or care how their language comes across to others.

If you have the kids in your garden, there will be people in the pub garden telling inappropriate-for-small-ears-stories, littered with swearwords, regardless of how nice the pub is. Perfectly nice adults speak like this too so it doesn’t matter how nice the pub is.

No I wouldn't. Many pubs are going to residential now but the permissions negotiations tend to be protracted while residents lobby to save them, with neglect to the building and dereliction in the meantime. We declined one next to a local village pub as it had regular theme nights and plans to expand the capacity.

Oh also people still smoke cigarettes and all year round if the wind is in the right direction you will get it coming through your window. And in the summer it’ll be all day. And there is nothing you nor the landlord can do about it.

It would be a no from me.
Antisocial behaviour, smokers, early morning deliveries.
Wanted a pub in the village we moved to - but wouldn't want to live next to it!

Even if it’s a lovely pub, you are likely to still get noise. It might not be pumping music and brawls in the street, but pubs do by their nature cause a bit of noise (I have lived in one). People will stand outside smoking and chatting and even people leaving politely will be chatting and laughing which can sound surprisingly loud late at night. Obviously if they have a beer garden of any kind you’ll hear that all day and at night in good weather. People who have had a couple of drinks are always louder than they think they are.

They might also be granted a music license for bands etc. If it’s a food pub people will drive there and park, especially on Sundays and evenings. There will be cooking smells from their extractor fans if they have a busy kitchen.

Also worth remembering that a pub will have regular deliveries from lorries and that shifting beer kegs and barrels etc is a noisy business. They will also likely empty their bottle bins into an outdoor recycling bin after closing time every night, which is brief but very loud.

If you don’t think any of this would bother you, no problem - plenty of people live next to village pubs and love it, and a nice pub on your doorstep obviously has a lot of advantages. But you won’t know until it opens what kind of pub it will be and even a lovely quiet pub does generate noise just through normal pub operations, so that’s what you need to consider. Certainly don’t buy next to a pub if you are then going to complain about normal pub stuff like tipsy people, smoking, noise etc - it’s not fair on the landlords.

I moved to opposite an old pub that had recently reopened as a very nice restaurant. the restaurant failed, became a pub again - reasonably OK until they did a deal with the wedding dress shop next door - then had weekly late night noisy wedding parties. top of the hate list was sodding bagpipes at one in the morning.

just read the post above - had forgotten the regular bottle collection at 3am

Of course you’re not unreasonable, if you’re buying a house then you want to be happy with every aspect of your new home.

I wouldn't. I'm a poor sleeper and it would annoy me a lot. DH on the other hand can fall asleep in any noise so he'd be fine. There's also resale to consider, even if it's your forever home, it's worth thinking about whether it will put buyers off.

I rented a flat tow doors down from a pub (closed when we moved in) on a small town square. I didn't mind the noise of people in the square of an evening but when the pub opened, the Friday night disco and the karaoke on Saturday and Sunday nights soon had me moving.

There even used to be a regular Wednesday 'Singing Landlord' at lunchtimes.

Couldn't really complain though as it would be like moving next to a church and complaining about the bells. 😂

I used to live next door to a small village pub and it was hell.

In the summer, playing exceptionally loud music in the garden until 10-11pm. So loud that you could walk 10 doors down and still hear it as if you were next to it. Then people sat outside in the garden pissed up and talking/laughing/screeching at the tops of their voices until midnight.

In the winter with the bands playing indoors, you could still hear through your double glazing.

On the odd occasion we did ask if they could keep the music down, their response was always "we were here first". Basically, Tough! We don't give a shit if it disturbs you.

Seriously, don't do it.

Pubs can be very noisy, both in opening hours ( extra car traffic , summer day and late night fun in the beer garden, music, TV sports finals with the volume turned up ) but also when they are closed. Noisy bulk deliveries AND collection of full and empty casks and bottles can happen late and very early am.. You may also have a lot of smells and noise from the kitchen and extractors. Working hours for publicans and staff are a lot longer than the "open to public" hours.

On a nice summers day, you're going to hear all the sound effects in your own garden.

Our village pub is lovely but I still wouldn't want to live next door to it. We're about 6 houses away and still can hear the loud hum of the pub kitchen fans and early morning glass emptying. I have no problem with it where we are but I certainly wouldn't move closer.

They also run beer festivals. We go and make the most of it (or go to my parents for the weekend!) and accept that our kids will not be able to go to bed at their normal time as it's too loud. It's only a couple of weekends a year but if it was that level if noise more frequently it would not be fun at all.

I would be looking for another house. Pubs are a nightmare. Dont do it

That's outrageous. I would be livid with anyone who tried to do that in my community - what selfish, arrogant wankers. Are they aware of the damage they are causing (both to the life of the village and their own reputations)? I couldn't help but post them frequent letters informing them how unwelcome they were

Our village pub has closed, but it got sold for development. Pubs are dying a death especially rurally, and we've only got 2 that are now open within a 5 mile radius whereas there used to be about 15.
My only concern would be what it gets turned into tbh. It's a gamble.

There's a lovely little cottage for sale in the next village from me, it's directly next door to a pub

It's been on RightMove for a very long time and in the photos they've done their best to not show the pub!

Loud drinkers outside and smokers. I wonder why it's been on RightMove so long?

Steer clear for all the reasons people have already listed.
You'll end up hating it.
Even if it's a nice pub with a quieter clientele, they still make noise chatting and laughing and coming and going.
I live about 400 metres away from a hotel with a restaurant and terrace. It's not annoying but I do still hear quite a bit of noise late into the night in summer and if there's a wedding on (which happens quite a lot) there'll be music and partying until 2 am.
Then there's the early morning deliveries and the bin emptying.
It's fine where I live as it's just a bit of background noise, but if it was right next door it would soon become too much.

We turned down a beautiful village house in a similar situation.We were put off by cars park d blocking us in and Lare night noise.