Chelmsford’s Ghost Pubs - The Army & Navy

This month we’re travelling Back Inn Time to stroll across the car park and in through the front door to enter the bar of an iconic Chelmsford landmark pub, The Army & Navy. The venue has been much lamented since its demolition in 2007, its cultural legacy now confined to the naming of the notorious roundabout which the pub overlooked.

Built in the 1930s, in the then fashionable interwar Tudor revival style, the pub was a classic example of the brewery industry’s efforts to civilise and modernise pubs, distancing them from the Victorian image of dark, male-dominated drinking dens. These pubs were typically large in scale, the nostalgic style drawing inspiration from 16th-century English design with black-and-white timbering, steeply pitched gabled roofs, brick chimneys, leaded casement windows and ornate fireplaces.

In the 90s, the pub established a reputation as an intimate – 350 capacity - venue for live music, hosting numerous notable acts. Among them, Oasis, Elastica, The Bluetones, Shed Seven, Ash, Kula Shaker, Muse, Toyah, The Lurkers, The Meteors, Bad Manners, Dr Feelgood all graced its stage.

Sadly, following its demolition the site was redeveloped to accommodate a Travelodge hotel, private apartments and a collection of retail units. Now a thoroughly soulless site, for many locals the Army & Navy will be remembered as a symbol of a vibrant era in Chelmsford's social and musical history.