The Alma, Newington Green Road N1 - Eviction sale

Hi All

My good friend Kirsty has been evicted by Enterprise pub co from her pub of 12 years, The Alma, 59 Newington Green Road N1.
Although this is a terrible state of affairs, there may be a silver lining.

All furniture, glassware and non inventory fixtures and fittings are being sold from the pub for cash on Tuesday 12th November. Anyone who is interested in any of these items please go down and make an offer. Kirsty really needs to clear these pieces so she can pick up what's left and start again.

The bailiffs should open up the pub from about 09:00.

I'll post any updates I hear of.

Thanks all

Sorry to hear this, that sucks. I used to live on Mildmay Grove South just down the road, I liked that pub.

To quote Private Eye:

Pubcos are essentially greedy property companies with a cuddly name – and they own nearly half the country’s pub freeholds.

'Nuff said.

It's a great shame. Priced out of her own game by the very people who are meant to be keeping these places going for their own profit!
Makes no sense, but, please guys, get down there if interested.

I should say that some of the furniture pieces are very nice. Chesterfield sofas, oak tables, classic chairs etc.

Sad news. Where else can one get those kiwi sweets.

Now feel guilty for not frequenting there to support her. Preferred the beer in the Orwell & Glory

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/nov/08/battle-to-save-alma-great-british-pubs

Enterprise are a bunch of bastards.

Not a local but very sad to hear this, same thing is happening a lot down here in south London... Hate it...

Hi, so this was supposed to be my wedding reception venue in 3 weeks. Kirsty is being very cool about it, and her problems are bigger than ours.

Enterprise Inns are a bunch of fat grey cunts in suits, they don't deserve pubs like The Alma.

Sorry to hear that CG. It would have been a great venue. Good luck in your search for another.
Kirsty worked so hard to keep that place going. She made great progress with Camra and was voted North London Cider festival pub of the year. Its a crying shame.

It was my best pals venue a few months back and was absolutely cracking. I spoke with EI earlier to see if there was any hope of it being open for ours (no), spoke with the area manager. I'd love to know if she lives and/or drinks in the area, and knows the affection there is for the Alma (and other pubs like it) or if she just runs the numbers in her home office, wincing at the bits in red and rewarding herself to a glass of half-price Tesco wine for the bits in green.

Too late for Save the Alma campaign?

This is a shame, odds on the Alma will be a Tesco Local in the New Year.

I didn't know so many people on here had a connection to this place, only got to know Kirsty a little recently doing some DJing on Fridays and couldn't believe i didn't know about the place before, it had a really nice vibe which is rare for a pub these days, great beers and ciders and food was top not. Hopefully something can be worked out, although it seems unlikely.
Sorry to hear about your wedding CG.

Sad news. I really like The Alma. I live near it but have only been a few times but it had a very nice atmosphere. Irritating to see a bunch of suits pretending to preserve pubs by doing the very thing that was closing them down. Fuckers.

Unfortunately we are too late. Kirsty lost her case in court yesterday. The morning Advertiser ran an add on the campaign last week.
http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/General-News/Petition-launched-to-save-the-Alma-in-Newington-Green

Not exaggerating when I say that the herby pork mince in cabbage I had their recently was one of the best things I've ever eaten

To be clear - pubs are part of our heritage and culture and should be protected. Pub companies are evil - but they are only evil because the form of capitalism we tolerate in this country allows evil.

its a loss of the commons, so surely government intervention is needed in some form?

perhaps legislation preventing the 'change of use' of public buildings such as public houses (pubs), instead ensuring that they have to remain public or unused, left to rest..

.. as then, like the pubs in the eest-side (*), they can be reawakened, :-)

*
Well & Bucket, The Crown and Shuttle, Old George

That was a good pub. The threat probably came too early for it to benefit under the Localism Act. Shame. I'm sad to read about that.

Just read the article. There might yet be hope should Enterprise try to do something other than run it as a pub (although it sounds as if the pub's assets will be dispersed):

http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/landmark_victory_as_developer_loses_appeal_against_order_protecting_historic_homerton_pub_1_2896883

(I didn't know they were so heavily in debt.)

It all went a bit crazy for a while in the mid nineties, with lots of highly leveraged buyouts of pub-estates.

For a while Nomura (Japanese investment bank) was the largest Pub Landlord in the UK (or rather it owned the most pubs).

The law at the time stopped a brewery from owning more than a certain number of pubs in order to prevent this sort of thing happening- which is why during that period the breweries were divorced from the pub estates- think Bass splitting into (first) Six Continents, then Mitchels And Butler for all the managed houses and Coors for the brewing side.

I worked in the industry for years, and the vast majority of the senior management were accountants.

What a shame, that was a nice pub. As others, didn't go there much, but the few times there I really enjoyed

https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/islington-council-make-the-alma-an-asset-of-community-value