Photo above: Circa 1988.
Below Classic photo of the Moat, showing its stylish interior, again taken by the excellent Leicester pub historian Chris Pyrah.
Out of city centre estate pub, The Moat obtained a licence transferred from the Stag & Hounds on the 13th of February 1957. Then changed its name to Monks Rest sometime in November 1993. (named after the site where Monks would rest on their way to the Abbey.)
As per usual the food giant had its way. Another pub was lost, leaving a large portion of the estate without a pub – although like many estate pubs the Monks Rest hadn’t really kept up. It is striking that many of these large 1950s built estate pubs were to follow this pattern as the early busy bustling outlets came suffer from dwindling trade, lack of investment and revolving door tenants, which did little to keep locals loyalty. There were other factors that put pressure: government policies with beer orders acts – where breweries were only allowed a limited number of pubs – resulted in a free for all on ownership, where pub companies were formed often breaking something that didn’t really need fixing. Drinking habits were changing in any case.