Fuller's buys Great Northern Railway Tavern

[Adrian Essex]

I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing. Good for Fuller's perhaps,as it's a popular pub, but what do Fuller's do to a pub? The Flask in Highgate is an example.

GNRT.

Thanks to Glynn Davis for the news

glynn davis @GlynnDavis

Big news in my part of north London as @FullersBrewery buys @TheGNRTavern (@harringayonline / @CrouchEnd)

[Mark Crouch End]

I'd go with good news.

The main threat these days is closure. Fullers bought the Holly Bush in Hampstead at the same time as the Flask back in 2010. The Holly Bush is now one of the few survivors over in NW3, so many others having closed (Jack Straw's Castle, Nag's Head, King of Bohemia, the Rosslyn, Coach & Horses, White Bear, Horse & Groom, Haverstock...). So clearly a better bet than Punch.

I'm quite partial to ESB too.

How does this affect the proposal to turn the upper floors into flats?

[Adrian Essex]

Crouch End and Hornsey seem to be a blessed oasis of decent ale. Pub closures to the right of us, pub closures to the left of us, but from time to time we even get new ones, such as the Earl Haig.

What are the upper floors at the moment? A place of assignation? Staff quarters? Sell of a few flats, offset the cost of the trading premises - seems like sound financial management. Buy shares in Fullers? EBITDA is up 8%!

[Mark Crouch End]

The upper floors are currently let out, the consented planning was to convert them into s/c flats. The problem, as I remember it, is that the pub may lose the kitchen, leaving the business on shakier ground.

Still, it now looks as if the planning application was at the very least partly to increase the sale price before the offload to Fullers. And as Fullers is only interested in running pubs, the threat to the business should dissipate.

I'm being uncharacteristically positive here.

You're right about the blessed oasis though. Hornsey, Crouch End & Highgate seem to be hanging onto the pubs. The beer belt of north London.

[Dansette Dave]

Agree Fullers could keep the pub going with their kind of funding and expertise. But I fear for the ale. GNRT were always creative in their choice of real ales, and there was always some interesting guest ales on. The Holly bush used to have a great pint of Harveys on, but when Fullers took over, that went and, was replaced by what I expected in the Fullers range, London pride, ESB and the paler Honey Dew.. that was that. Hope they can keep a guest ale slot open and support London based independent breweries. But I doubt it.

[Charlie Sharp]

It is more hopeful than before. It is such a shame that the previous owners (the egregious Punch?) messed with such a good formula.that the manager Victoria established. Not only was Harvey's frequently on, but also Woodforde Wherry, a rare and great ale. But Fullers do run good pubs, even if the real ale range is less strong than it was. The Flask used to serve Butcombe, an superb pint, but no longer. Maybe they will up the game. I hope food is kept, as well as making it possible to run events and music in the rear room.

[Sean Boyle]

The scaffolding is up and the builders are in at the GNRT - looks like Fullers have taken over at last. Does anyone know anything about their plans?

[Mark Crouch End]

See http://opinion8.ning.com/forum/topics/fullers-plans-for-the-great-n...

[Sean Boyle]

Thanks for that; looks promising.

I owe you a pint!

[David Winskill]

I dropped fullers a line last week about their plans for the top House and this came back .. looks promising.

We purchased the pub a while ago and have just recently started work there as you may have seen. It is a big old building and so the work is going to take at least 10 weeks, therefore we are hoping to reopen at the end of March. The focus of the project is to restore the pub to its former glory rather than try and recreate it and there are certainly some great original features to work with.

 

I very much want to create a pub that is part of the community, that sells great beer and a plate of food in a relaxed environment. 

[Denise Hambry]

Thank you David,sounds a good plan!