The Ivy House beats £100,000 target in share issue

The Ivy House in Nunhead, which was bought by the local community in March, will invest the money in refurbishing the garden, cellar, bar area, kitchen and top two floors of residential accommodation before the pub reopens in August.

Tessa Blunden, co-founder of the Ivy House Community Pub Limited told the PMA the target had been reached before the share issued closed at the end of last week.

“We’re calculating how much money we have from the share issue but we know we’ve definitely exceeded our target,” she told the Publican’s Morning Advertiser.

Blunden could not confirm at this stage how much money would be spent on the individual areas but added the pub was on course to open in August, and hoped a manager would be appointed by July.

“We were interviewing all day yesterday and we’ll be looking to appoint shortly after the second interviews,” she said.

The Ivy House became one of the first pubs in the country to be listed as an asset of community value (ACV). It was closed in April 2012 by Enterprise Inns, which sold it to a property developer within a week prompting concern among locals.

After lobbying from the steering group and the Campaign for Real Ale, as well as intervention from local MP Harriet Harman, English Heritage gave the pub a Grade II listing.

The pub was then put on the ACV list last October.