The oldest pub in England, which may be as much as 1,229 years old, has been forced to close down due to COVID-19 hardships.

According to The Washington Post, “the pandemic and the government’s public health restrictions squeezed [Christo Tofalli’s] business until he couldn’t meet its financial obligations.”

Tofalli took over the lease of the pub in 2012. //

The first brick of the pub was laid as early as 793 A.D. in St. Albans, England, “near the ruins of an ancient Roman city well before the United Kingdom was formed.”

Closure due to COVID-19 hardships will be made more painful when we consider the other natural disasters the pub has lived through, including famines (1235, 1315-1317, 1623-1624, 1740-1741, 1816, 1845-1849), bubonic plague (1347-1350, 1563, 1592-93, 1603, 1625, 1665-1666), influenza pandemics and epidemics (1557, 1729, 1775-1776, 1836-1837, 1847-1848, 1889-1890, 1918, 1957-1958, 1968-1970, 2009-2010), cholera (1831-1833, 1848-1854, 1865-1873), smallpox (1837-1840, 1870-1875), HIV/AIDS (1979-present), as well as countless winter storms and heat waves.

Not only that, the pub also saw over 1,000 years of conflict, including the Civil War, two World Wars, and the American Revolutionary War.

The pub has also survived multiple economic recessions and depressions, including the Great Slump of 1430-1490, the Long Depression of 1873-1896, the Great Depression of 1930-1931, and the Great Recession of 2008-2009.

And after over a millennia in business, it was COVID-19 which brought the pub to its knees.