The East of England list includes Beefeaters in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Some of the strongest surviving histories belong to buildings that were inns or mills long before they served the chain’s steak dinners. Others were newer neighbours to Premier Inn hotels. Together they show why a region-wide list is more useful when it leads to an individual local story.
Great Yarmouth Seafront now trades as The Dunes, while Oyster Reach and Moor Mill also have Queensway chapters. Earlier closures include the Albert in Colchester and Travellers Rest in Cambridge. Those earlier names remain reachable here, but are kept separate from the final restaurants so the regional totals do not double-count them. The Dunes keeps a seafront address in Great Yarmouth.
What happened in East of England?
- Reopened
- 3
- Hotel guests only
- 1
- Converted or redeveloped
- 0
- Plans announced
- 0
- No news yet
- 11
Photographs from East of England
Three local stories
Moor Mill, Radlett
Moor Mill near Radlett combines a restaurant story with a much older working landscape. The present listed mill building dates from 1762 on a site with milling connections recorded as far back as Domesday. It stopped working in 1916, later became a home and opened as a pub in 1992. Whitbread bought it in 1998 and added the Beefeater chapter, with a hotel alongside. The surviving waterwheels and machinery help explain why a remembered visit here could feel different from another branch. Queensway’s later takeover is a change of restaurant operator within that longer building history.
CAMRA venue record ↗ · Queensway directory: 8 October check ↗ ·
Oyster Reach, Ipswich
Oyster Reach was once the Ostrich Inn at Bourne Hill, Wherstead. Its timber-framed building has sixteenth- and seventeenth-century fabric, while Suffolk CAMRA traces landlords from 1750 and connects the earlier name with the Coke family crest. Whitbread later developed the inn as a Beefeater beside a Travel Inn, now Premier Inn. The Queensway chapter began before the chain’s final nationwide date, with CAMRA reporting a late-August 2026 reopening. Keeping the old Ostrich name, the Beefeater period and the current Oyster Reach together helps readers follow one address through several identities.
British Listed Buildings ↗ · Suffolk CAMRA pub history ↗ · East Anglia CAMRA venue page ↗ · Queensway directory: 8 October check ↗ ·
The Granary, Peterborough
Peterborough’s Granary opened in December 1980 as the Old Barn, giving its later Beefeater name an earlier identity to follow. Its Orton Meadows address is part of the restaurant’s local story, rather than a generic example of Whitbread’s national strategy. Reporting at the September 2026 closure described a leasehold sale through Christie & Co and uncertainty about the building’s future, after expectations that the space might become hotel rooms. The page keeps that uncertainty attached to the report. An advertised property and an expected conversion are useful news, but neither provides a new restaurant opening date.
CAMRA venue record ↗ · Rightmove sale listing (Christie & Co) ↗ · Peterborough Telegraph: Granary closure and sale ↗ ·
Every final Beefeater in East of England
Help find photographs of the missing venues →
- The Brache, Luton — No news yet · LU1 3HJ
- Crows Nest, Tring — No news yet · HP23 4LD
- The Foxburrow, Lowestoft — No news yet · NR32 4AA
- The Granary, Peterborough — No news yet · PE2 5UU
- Great Yarmouth Seafront, Great Yarmouth — Reopened · NR30 3DD
- Halfway House, Dunstable — Hotel guests only · LU5 4LL
- Harlow Mill, Harlow — No news yet · CM20 2EP
- The Haywain, Stanford Le Hope — No news yet · SS17 9NR
- Liberty Bell, Romford — No news yet · RM1 3EN
- Moor Mill, Radlett — Reopened · AL2 3PN
- Oyster Reach, Ipswich — Reopened · IP2 8ND
- Priory Marina, Bedford — No news yet · MK41 9DJ
- Strawberry Field, Southend-on-sea — No news yet · SS2 6GB
- Ware, Ware — No news yet · SG12 9QB
- The Watermill, Basildon — No news yet · SS13 1BW
Earlier Beefeaters in East of England
The Albert, Colchester
At Cowdray Avenue, CO1 1UT, the Albert’s locked doors attracted local reporting during the 2024 changes. CAMRA listed it as long-term closed that July. A June 2026 report put it in the seven-site Mitchells & Butlers package, without assigning Miller & Carter or Toby Carvery to this building.
Travellers Rest, Cambridge
The Huntingdon Road pub, CB3 0DL, closed on 4 July 2024. The cited account records plans to convert the space into hotel rooms. This is separate from the Kenton Travellers Rest.