The Queens Head in Chelsea is one of the borough’s oldest surviving pubs at 170 years old and shut on 6 September.
The pub held a send-off event on 3 September and explained it was disappointed to be closing on the venue’s Facebook page.
End of an era
Users expressed their upset on the social media page. One said: “Omg… No…. the end of an era and my stomping ground 30 years ago… so sorry.” Another said: “Awful news. So sorry to read this.”
According to the post, the closure is down to the “offshore property holdings company that owns the freehold. They’re refusing to come to reasonable terms with Stonegate on the lease. Stonegate is a business and no matter how well the pub is doing, if the landlords are asking for too much money, then it’s untenable for them to keep the place.
“They honestly didn’t want to let us go and have been trying for months to come to an agreement with the landlords.”
Another user said: “Words just don’t express. You guys and the Queens have been a light. Much, much love.”
On 7 September, the pub posted: “We’ve pulled our last pints, poured our last gin and tonic. We’ve said a tearful 'goodbye' to our last customers. The lights are out, the doors are locked for the last time. Me, Hadi and Michael are cashing up for the very last time. We’re now sitting with a final drink toasting all of our amazing friends in an empty, dark put that will never be the same. That’s time at the bar folks, time at the bar.”
Negotiations
Stonegate Pub Company had been running the pub since October last year under a licence to occupy from 'TCG in administration' and a spokesperson from the pubco said: "We have been in negotiations with the landlords ahead of the lease expiry in 2019 for some time but were unable to secure terms that would have enabled us to invest and operate the business on a long-term basis.
"The administrators of TCG, therefore, handed the pub back to the landlords on 13 September."