STANDING on the corner of High and Burgess Roads, this week’s lost pub was originally called the Hampton Park Hotel when it first opened its doors to pub regulars back in 1924.

Despite trading as public house for over a century, it was fair to say that the Hampton Park Hotel, which would also become known as The Tanners and The Old Black Cat during its existence, suffered something of a chequered history.

In 1983 the relief manager of the Hampton Park Hotel at the time, Wally Harrison, was injured when he confronted a burglar at the pub. Masked with a balaclava and wielding s hammer hegrabbed Mr Harrison by the throat and said: “Give Me your money or I’ll kill you!”

But despite suffering two black eyes and a cut to his face, Mr Harrison put up a heroic fight and managed to fight off the raider and save the day’s takings.

Three years later the pub hit the headlines again when hooligans’ caused £4,000 worth of damage to the building after running rampage inside the building.

Daily Echo:

The pub is now a McDonald's

In 1989 dozens of regulars were told to drink up and leave only an hour after and a quarter after opening time when city magistrates refused to renew the troubled boozer’s licence after hearing that police had dealt with six incidents at the premises in the previous three months.

It’s licence was restored just a month later but the trouble persisted and with its previous history bar brawls and violence against staff, Whitbread brewery chiefs called time on the Tanners in January 1990 as workmen moved in to board up the windows and doors.

However just twelve months later the notorious pub was given a reprieve when the Tanners was transformed by new owners Devonshire Breweries from a brawling bar with £250,000 refurbishment to a cosy family eating place and renamed The Old Black Cat.

But within a year and despite the best efforts the pub’s staff, the establishment soon slipped back to its old ways when a man had part of his ear bitten off in a fight a karaoke night, which was followed by an attempted arson on the pub a few months later.

By 1996 the Old Black Cat’s owners had finally lost their patience with the pub and establishment was closed and sold to the McDonalds fast food chain and transformed into a restaurant that offered beverages no stronger than a milkshake.