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Thread: One for the Londoners here - Are Antic in trouble ?

  1. #1
    I'll stay on me own Gann's Avatar
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    Default One for the Londoners here - Are Antic in trouble ?

    Went to pay a second visit to the Bohemia in North Finchley last night after it was reopened from an O'Neils by Antic last summer, only to find it shut and a group of the locals outside being photographed with banners (presumably for the local rag) to get it reopened.
    And a bit of googling this morning has thrown up that it shut last week after Antic could not come to an agreement with the agent acting for the head lessor and were forced to close our doors as a result.
    On the back of them being gazumped for one of their pubs in Walthamstow and a couple of other stories abounding about them loosing other lease deals, things don't look too rosie in the house of Antic..
    Anyone got any more informed information ?
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  2. #2
    Palookaville hondo's Avatar
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    Last edited by hondo; 21-08-2013 at 11:12.
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  3. #3
    This Space For Hire Aqualung's Avatar
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    My answer to the original question is that I don't know.

    There are several parts to this story.


    The first part is that at the beginning of the year Antic split their estate into two and the smaller part consisting of just 12 pubs went into administration. This was then bought up by the Gregarious Pub Company (run by a former Antic member of staff!). The remaining Antic pubs are now all on the AnticLondon.com web site.

    I don't know much about accountancy, but to me this smacks of a convenient arrangement dreamed up by an accountant.

    The second part consists of the gazumping of the leasehold of two Antic pubs by Camden Bars, a company who specialise in rubbish music venue pubs in Camden Town and Hackney.

    The first to go was the Chequers in Walthamstow Market. The first thing they did was to cut out weekday afternoon opening so they open at 17:00 Mon-Fri. I went there at Easter when it Was Antic and spotted a couple of interesting beers, one of which was in very good nick. To be honest I can't be bothered to return after what Camden Bars did.

    About a month later the same thing happened to the Catford Bridge Tavern, whose closing down party is I believe this Sunday.

    The third part concerns the Bohemia in Finchley. As the local rag article which Hondo refers to states, this is a simple case of M&B (a pub company that has it's origins in one of the old Big Six breweries) refusing to give Gregarious (the spin-off from Antic) a permanent lease. Why this should be so is anyone's guess.

    I recently went to two new Antic pubs in East London and sadly both of them had a poor beer selection, but I believe that they need to set up a trading agreement with SIBA to allow them to get more interesting beers in. The Old George in Bethnal Green Road was fairly quiet, but the brand new Leyton Technical was pretty well rammed. It looked like they had spent a lot of money on doing it up.

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    This Space For Hire Rex_Rattus's Avatar
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    I reckon they are a bit of a hit & miss outfit. Apart from the Antic London split fiasco, there are several other occasions where forthcoming pub openings have been advertised, but have not come to fruition. The Knowles in West Norwood, and the Greyhound in Sydenham are a couple of cases in point - there are others that don't spring to mind at the moment. They just don't give the impression of permanence. They do decent ale though.

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    I dont think Antic are in trouble as they have just had their own brewery fitted out in Camberwell.They seem to get short leases on pubs that others seem to steer clear of.By putting half the pubs into liquidation recently they should have cleared out the dead wood.

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    This Space For Hire Aqualung's Avatar
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    The Bohemia from above appears in the 2014 GBG, So much for the blurb on page 5 claiming that the GBG is not out of date as soon as it's published!! I'm sure the branch would not have included it if they knew Antic were likely to lose the lease.

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    The backboard outside this one says it's "part of the Antic Collective" - whatever that means.

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    Quote Originally Posted by NickDavies View Post
    The backboard outside this one says it's "part of the Antic Collective" - whatever that means.
    I think Antic Collective is what Antic Pub Co became after the accountants had ditched the twelve pubs and after becoming Antic London. According to their web page the Bohemia is still one of them!

  9. #9
    Palookaville hondo's Avatar
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    "fighting to have the pub reopened said it they had held positive talks"
    http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/N...se_occupation/
    "Do I know where hell is? hell is in hello"

  10. #10
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    It looks like a another East London one is going to open soon, the bizarrely named Farr's School Of Dancing in Dalston Lane E8. It sounds like it's going to be more of a foody place than an ale house.

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