The South West’s final Beefeaters stretch from Cornwall through Devon and Somerset to Bristol, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Dorset. The Carnon Inn at Carnon Downs and Twelve Bells near Gloucester now have Queensway pages, while Ferndown’s Smugglers Haunt has become the Cranborne Hundred under J D Wetherspoon. Their current dining information belongs to the new operator, not to an old Beefeater menu.
The region also includes very different building histories. Torquay’s Belgrave began as a private hotel, while the Gifford at Stoke Gifford was a new restaurant and hotel development in 2024. White Lodge in Taunton has a photograph and address but a less complete earlier history. That gap is left open rather than filled with another White Lodge’s story.
What happened in South West?
- Reopened
- 3
- Hotel guests only
- 0
- Converted or redeveloped
- 0
- Plans announced
- 0
- No news yet
- 10
Photographs from South West
Three local stories
The Belgrave, Torquay
Torquay’s Belgrave began as Belgrave House in 1859, described by CAMRA as the town’s first private hotel. Whitbread bought the later three-star Belgrave Hotel in 2008 with plans for a Premier Inn and a Beefeater grill restaurant. Its position opposite Torre Abbey Gardens and the seafront places it within the Belgravia Conservation Area. The restaurant therefore belonged to a hotel building with a long pre-Beefeater history. An old photograph may show that hotel chapter rather than the chain restaurant, so the date and sign matter when identifying a memory of a meal in Torquay.
CAMRA venue record ↗ · Restaurant Online, Feb 2008 ↗ · Torbay Weekly: Belgrave Road history ↗ ·
The Gifford, Stoke Gifford
The Gifford at Stoke Gifford was at the other end of the age range. The Stoke Gifford Journal dates its opening with the neighbouring Premier Inn to 17 June 2024. That makes it a recent new-build restaurant in the last years of the brand, distinct from the older buildings converted to Beefeaters elsewhere in the South West. Its Fox Den Road location also helps people searching for Filton or the Bristol area find the correct page. The short Beefeater chapter is still worth preserving: a restaurant need not have traded for decades to have been part of someone’s local life.
The Gifford opening report ↗ · Christie & Co: The Gifford sale particulars ↗ ·
Carnon Inn, Truro
Carnon Inn’s setting is Carnon Downs, on the road between Truro and Falmouth, rather than central Truro. CAMRA describes a modern pub restaurant with an attached motel and later refurbishment bringing alcove seating and a function room. The current Queensway page at Old Carnon Hill continues the breakfast and pub-dining connection with the neighbouring hotel. The village, the address and the hotel help identify this particular Cornish restaurant when a memory uses only the larger town name. Its individual history follows those changes in layout and operator without borrowing an old-inn origin from another venue.
CAMRA venue record ↗ · Wikipedia: Carnon Downs ↗ · Queensway directory: 8 October check ↗ ·
Every final Beefeater in South West
Help find photographs of the missing venues →
- The Belgrave, Torquay — No news yet · TQ2 5HE
- Carnon Inn, Truro — Reopened · TR3 6JZ
- Countess Wear, Exeter — No news yet · EX2 6HE
- Frome Flyer, Frome — No news yet · BA11 2LD
- The Gifford, Stoke Gifford — No news yet · BS34 8EF
- The Lydiard, Swindon — No news yet · SN5 8UB
- Marsh Mills, Plymouth — No news yet · PL3 6RW
- The Pavilion, Weston-Super-Mare — No news yet · BS22 8LY
- Smugglers Haunt, Ferndown — Reopened · BH22 9BB
- The Somerford, Christchurch — No news yet · BH23 3QG
- Twelve Bells, Gloucester — Reopened · GL3 4SS
- White Lodge, Taunton — No news yet · TA1 2DU
- White Rock, Paignton — No news yet · TQ4 7RZ
Earlier Beefeaters in South West
Emersons Green, Bristol
At 200–202 Westerleigh Road, BS16 7AN, the old Beefeater and today’s Wetherspoon share an address. BristolWorld reported a brief Great British Pub Co reopening in July 2025. The Papas Group franchise announcement later named Emersons Green. The address match is clear, but the full handover sequence has not been researched.
CAMRA WhatPub 113925 ↗ · JDW Emersons Green ↗ · Morning Advertiser, 8 Sep 2025 ↗ · BristolWorld: July 2025 reopening ↗ ·
Bristol Fashion, Broadmead
The Haymarket restaurant had a bar downstairs and dining upstairs. It traded as Grill Bar before returning to Beefeater. CAMRA’s dates conflict, so spring 2024 is the safest closure description. The building was demolished that August for residential use.
Grandstand
The Kingsteignton restaurant opened on Newton Abbot Racecourse’s car park in January 2012. It became resident-only on 5 July 2024.
Beefeater Weymouth
Public service at Mercery Road ended on 5 July 2024. A demolition application followed in October, and CAMRA records work beginning in September 2025 to make room for hotel accommodation.
Cross Hands
The Tewkesbury Road restaurant, Cheltenham, became a Premier Inn restaurant on 5 July 2024. It later appeared in the M&B seven-site deal, but the intended brand was not assigned to it.