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I'd heard of this poker story. But I never put two and two together.
My Dad looked at the pub which was empty on a Friday evening, and had pubco-type signs for horrible drinks outside at fairly expensive prices. His immediate impression (without knowing the history as he is from Edinburgh) was that they were probably deliberately running it down in order to convert to flats. My girlfriend also said exactly the same, and says she sees this happening often in London (she's an architect). FFS.
The Red Lion is pretty much a benchmark in how to run a decent pub in the area. They must make a fucking killing.
rodabod-
Actually I heard the other day that Antic have gone into administration, I think they have expanded too fast.
I walked past the Heathcote while on a property hunt in the area, and thought straight away it looked shite, and that the drinks deals etc weren't appealing at all. Shame if that is deliberate. They've done a good job of turning people away if so.
tbc
Something weird happened in the Heathcote, I wasn't there, but I heard about it. A poker club used to meet once a week for a few hands, a chat and a few drinks. One night last year they turned up and the manager told them they were barred. For drug dealing. These were just ordinary bods, they had nothing to do with dealing drugs. How the flipping heck do you deal drugs while playing poker? The poker players were furious but couldn't do much so they just bitched and moaned and went elsewhere, so it made me wonder if you owned a large Victorian corner pub with a massive garden and a property developer started running their hand up your leg you begin to realise you could make an awful lot of money so you start getting silly with the ban hammer and run the trade down to give the impression the pub's not profitable. Who knows?