Reports of the closure of the MA500 member were first disclosed on Twitter after customers began asking questions of the Princess Victoria in Shepherd’s Bush, west London.
In response to queries, the pub’s social media account replied: “As of today, we are unfortunately closed, out of the blue, no one was expecting it but all of our sites across Affinity Bars & Restaurants have been shut down as of 7am this morning and 80 staff have lost their jobs, apologies to any customers wanting to come in but there is nothing we can do.
“And to those who had functions booked and paid for, we literally found out at 7am this morning, on behalf of all the staff we are so extremely sorry and we hope there is something we can do for you, however, our higher ups have decided that we need to close with immediate effect.
“Lots of hard-working, dedicated staff have lost their jobs and we we are sorry that we couldn't look after you in the future.”
Currently, websites to the company’s four operations, the Princess Victoria, the Henry Root in Chelsea, the Lady Ottoline near Farringdon, and Dickie Fitz in Fitzrovia are offline and showing only a password-protected website and phone numbers for the company are no longer working.
At the time of publication, The Morning Advertiser was unable to reach anyone at the company for comment.