CHRISTMAS and New Year's parties have been cancelled by the pandemic this year.
But back in 1994, party plans for dozens of Herefordians were scuppered for altogether different reasons, as legal wrangling brought about the closure of a popular city venue.
The future of the Greyfriars restaurant, hotel and health and fitness club on the banks of the River Wye was thrown into doubt in November 1994 as legal complications over the site's lease came to light after the death of owner Edmund Campion.
Among the casualties of the closure was the reunion of pupils of the former Hereford High School for Boys, which was expected to attract around 80 old boys on December 10.
It was the first time the event had not been held since the war, the High School Old Boys' Association told the Hereford Times at the time.
The party cancellations were the beginning of a sad end for the prominent venue, which hosted a bevy of leading National Hunt jockeys and the then chairman and manager of Hereford United at its official opening in May 1984.
Owners Di and Terry Court had high hopes for Greyfriars, which offered a range of beauty, health and fitness treatments and training in its gym, sauna, physiotherapy clinic, and salon.
The riverside restaurant, under the leadership of chef-de-cuisine, Trevor Laplain, promised food fit for the Queen in the late 1980s, with unusual dishes such as braised Louisiana alligator on offer alongside a carvery and a la carte menu.
The restaurant was later renamed and relaunched as Campions, the name that many will remember the building bearing, in 1989 with chef Alan Stanford at the helm.
The closed site was put up for sale for £250,000 in 1995, with agents Knight Frank and Rutley warning that it would need significant refurbishment.
But by the late 1990s, the Greyfriars Hotel remained empty, with owners Eign Enterprises applying to demolish the dilapidated building and build homes on stilts at the site after inspections revealed the building to be beyond refurbishment.
The 'eyesore' building, sat in a prime position beside the main road through Hereford, remained standing in an ever-increasing state of dereliction after planning permission was finally obtained in 2011 until the bulldozers moved in to clear the site in 2013.
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