I've been told that the pub company that owns the Rabbit (the closure of which I mentioned a few days ago ~ click here) is finding reopening it a bigger job than they probably expected. The last tenant was unable to find a buyer for the remainder of his tenancy, and in such situations the pubco just demands the keys back without refunding any of the tenant's money, no matter how long the lease has left to run. The Rabbit's tenant has consequently stripped the place and sold everything that can be moved, even the urinals, so the pubco has a lot of work and expense before they can reopen the place. Serves them right.
It all seems rather desperate, but I can see this sort of thing happening more often if pubcos continue to treat their tenants like chattels who have to buy everything from them at vastly inflated prices - it's a modern twist on the old company store system - and with no fair way of getting out if they can't make a go of it. It's a sad day when things come to this.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
As long as the stained glass rabbit roundel hasn't gone from over the entrance doorway - that bunny always appealed to me going past on the bus as a child. If it has disappeared and someone sees it for sale in the Maze, or wherever - I'd like it!!!!
ReplyDeleteI remember in the 1980s it used to sell a fine pint of draught Bass, itself another thing that has...
ReplyDelete"Gone to join the swelling ranks
Of things that we look back upon" (John Conolly).