Time called on UK’s pubs: ‘Bloodbath’ of the boozers as more than 1,000 shut last year – how many closed near YOU?
- Pub industry bosses warn Britain’s boozers will face an unprecedented crisis
- More than 1,000 sits closed last year, with a staggering 21 shutting every week
- Energy bills ballooned with one pub being charged almost £2,100 for 10 days
Britain’s pub industry will face a ‘bloodbath’ of sweeping closures this year unless urgent action is taken to save the hundreds of boozers from bankruptcy.
That’s the stark warning being issued by terrified publicans who fear ballooning energy bills will be the ‘nail in the coffin’ for swathes of struggling pubs.
It comes as MailOnline can today reveal how more than 1,000 boozers closed in 2022 – double 2021’s figure, when Covid ravaged the industry, with some having been converted into swanky million-pound homes or fast-food joints.
London was the epicentre of the crisis, with 98 pubs shutting. Now campaigners fear thousands more nationwide will face financial ruin after a scheme helping companies cope with energy price hikes ended on Friday.
Dave Hayward, who is part of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and co-founder of award-winning craft beer firm A Hoppy Place, warned: ‘The industry has months left. After that, we’re going to see an absolute bloodbath.’
The heat map shows the areas most affected by sweeping pub closures across England during 2022 – with the Greater London area being most affected, with 98 boozers shutting up shop
The overall number of pub closures across England, Wales and Scotland has more than doubled, with 504 across England, Scotland and Wales closing in 2021 compared to a staggering 1,039 last year – as the cost-of-living crisis took its toll
Britain’s pub industry has faced a torrid three years, with Covid restrictions in 2020 and 2021 forcing sites to close or limit the number of punters. Then last year, the war in Ukraine caused gas prices to rocket – with energy bills ballooning.
Area’s worst hit by pub closures in 2022
Greater London saw the most pubs either shutting forever or having been or stuck in long-term closure limbo, where no new owners having taken them on, with 98 affected in all.
In Greater Manchester, 23 sites closed permanently with a further 47 remaining empty, in a blow for the city.
The wider Yorkshire region has also suffered. West Yorkshire has seen 72 boozers close. While in South and North Yorkshire, 43 and 37 were lost, respectively. East Yorkshire saw four venues close forever with eight others being labelled as ‘long-term’ closures.
In Kent, 47 boozers have either shut, while in Hampshire the figure is 29. Staffordshire has lost 38 venues and in Shropshire 26 have gone. Somerset, England’s cider capital, lost 25 pubs.
Some pubs have told MailOnline their monthly electricity charges tripled, with one boozer boss today admitting they had been charged a whopping £2,097 for just 10 days’ worth of energy.
In a desperate bid for survival, pubs have slashed opening hours and used candles at night instead of electric lights. While others turned to expensive fixed-term deals with energy giants to try and keep costs down.
But for many, the efforts proved fruitless, with 485 pubs closing their doors in the first six months of last year, swelling to 554 between July and December at a staggering rate of 21 per week, according to CAMRA.
The situation has proved so bleak that some of the nation’s biggest pub chains have revealed they are selling up swathes of their boozers – with Wetherspoons putting 35 on the market and Marston’s Brewery selling off 61 sites nationwide.
But Mr Hayward fears this is just the tip of the iceberg and claimed some 6,000 smaller, independent venues – who have ‘significantly less cash reserves’ were facing financial catastrophe.
He added: ‘The biggest operators will have the cash reserves, but lots of family-owned freehouses, the very best community pubs, heart and souls of towns and villages up and down the country will be the ones that fail.’
Among the now-closed boozers to hit the market last year included Jamie Oliver’s former establishment, The Cock, in Essex.
Jamie Oliver’s former pub The Cock, in Essex, is among the casualties of Britain’s boozer crisis. The historic tavern featured on the celebrity chef’s reality TV show Jamie’s Chef but was converted into a house. Pictured is the pub on Jamie’s Chef
The Cock in Essex was bought by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver but folded soon after. The 400-year-old former tavern was converted into a four-bedroom £1million home called Lime Tree Cottage and put on the market in 2022
The home’s swanky interior have been striped of its former tavern charm, with comfortable furniture and white walls and ceilings
The celebrity chef bought boozer in 2006 under his charity Fifteen Foundation, which worked to train disadvantaged youngsters up as chefs.
Pubs calling last orders for the final time swells over two years as cost of living crisis pushes boozers over the edge
The number of pubs shutting their doors for good has doubled in the space of a year, staggering new figures have revealed.
Between January and December 2021 during the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, 504 boozers calling final orders for the last time.
But last year, as the cost-of-living struck and energy bills ballooned, this number more than doubled, with 1,039 pubs shutting at an average rate of about 20 per week.
The 400-year-old village tavern, in Beazley End, near Braintree, featured on Oliver’s 2000s reality TV show Jamie’s Chef.
The series saw Oliver gift the gastropub to school dropout Aaron Craze, 28, who ran it until business reportedly slumped and it shut down in 2008.
After closing down, it was converted into a swanky £1million, four-bed home in 2013 and renamed Lime Tree Cottage.
It is just one of an army of ill-fated boozers to have been wiped out.
The old Prince of Wales in Bow, Mile End, London, was shut after its former landlord Tony Shepherd gunned down and killed a 19-year-old man in the pub in 2002. It has now been given a new lease of life as the Greedy Cow burger and steak bar.
Another venue to shut forever is the Britannia pub in Morris Street, Stepney, London – once the site of a notorious attack by London’s infamous Kray twins.
The pair of East End gangsters armed themselves with a loaded revolver, bayonet and machete when they launched their savage attack on rival Terrence Martin, stabbing him in August 1958.
The boozer has since been been converted the ‘Grill Hut’, having previously been a fried chicken joint.
While in Portsmouth – once crowned the pub capital of the UK with 12 boozers per square mile – former establishments like the New Roebuck and The Lion Brewery Tap have been converted into a Spar shop and Taiwanese beef noodle bar.
The former Prince of Wales pub in Bow, Mile End, London, was closed down after its former landlord Tony Shepherd gunned down and killed a 19-year-old man in the pub in 2002. It has now been given a new lease of life as the Greedy Cow burger and steak bar
The Britannia pub in Morris Street, Stepney, London, was once the scene of an infamous Kray Twins’ attack. The pair armed with a loaded revolver, bayonet, a machete and a crowbar when they attacked and stabbed Terrence Martin in August 1956. The former pub has now been converted the ‘Grill Hut’ (right), having previously been a fried chicken joint (left)
The former Forge Tavern in in Digbeth, Birmingham, has also been transformed after a murder rocked the boozer in July 2017. Carlton Donaldson, of Erdington, Birmingham, knifed much-loved family Dan Baird outside the pub, stabbing him in the heart with a ‘rambo’ knife. The boozer has since been converted into a Cuban bar called Son Caney Cuba Bar
Portsmouth once had the most pubs per square mile in the UK. But in recent years, former establishments like the New Roebuck have been converted into a Spar shop
On Friday, the Government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which came into force in November, came to an end.
Pubs now face a ‘cliff edge’ as soaring energy bills threaten to spell last orders for beloved boozers, according to the British Beer and Pub Association.
The group has already warned that from April 1, pubs will face an average energy bill rise of £18,400 a year following the end of the relief scheme.
Bosses from BBPA are calling on the Government to crackdown on energy suppliers to insist they offer a window to allow businesses locked in sky-high rates to renegotiate a good deal.
It comes as one pub owner revealed she could soon be forced to shut up her business after receiving a staggering electricity bill this week.
Emma Gibson, 42, runs two sites in Cheltenham – The Hewlett Arms and The Plough – with her husband Paul, 48.
But they were blown away by their latest bill from Pozitive Energy, which charged an eye-watering £2,097.76 for 10 days of electricity at The Hewlett. The firm has since told MailOnline there were some ‘discrepancies’ in the bill and that the sum was an ‘estimated reading’ that was ‘incorrect’.
Emma, who met Paul while working at the Hewlett 13 years ago before the pair took on the venue in 2014, fears their beloved boozer will soon be forced to shut forever.
The mother-of-three told MailOnline: ‘We would love to keep that pub because this is the one that holds our story. We met there. We had a family there. It would be horrible and utterly devastating to close it.
Emma Gibbon, 42, and her husband Paul, 48, owners of The Hewlett Arms pub in Cheltenham The Hewlett pub, in Cheltenham. A copy of Emma’s energy bill which showed she 10 days of energy cost almost £2,100. Emma and Paul are pictured inside The Hewlett Arms
‘What the f***ing f***!?’: Mrs Gibson shared a photo of her staggering energy bill for just 10 days, received in March and covering the end of February, over Twitter
She now fears that if the Government doesn’t step in and slash VAT rates, she will struggle to keep her beloved boozer, The Hewlett Arms pub (pictured) in Cheltenham – where she met her husband 13 years ago
‘But those rates are absolutely ludicrous. We were paying about £1,200 a month this time last year. Now it’s £6,000 a month.
‘Anything more than a couple of months and we will be at the limit our of overdraft. We’ve never had to do that in the nine years we’ve been there.
‘Now we’re getting to the point where we’re going to have to question about whether we will be to carry on… It would be business suicide just to continue until you bust yourself and the company.’
Joanne Farrell, 54, who runs The Windsor Castle boozer near Stockport, is facing a similar battle for survival after ‘greedy’ energy firms hiked her bills.
Her energy charges have soared from £500 a month to around £1,500. In a bid to drive down costs, Joanne has slashed her opening hours and hoovers the pub in the dark. She’s also installed a wood burner to keep it warm.
She added: ‘I’ve run this pub for 15 years, but this is the toughest it’s ever been to keep it going.
‘You see these pubs closing and it’s ripping the heart out of communities. You might have an elderly man who has lost his wife. It’s a highlight of their day coming to the pub. But that’s soon going to be over.
‘It’s scary. Nobody wants to lose a pub. But be under no illusion if things don’t change soon, we will struggle to survive.’
Joanne Farrell, 54, runs The Windsor Castle boozer near Stockport. She has seen her energy bill triple over the past year and says it’s one of the worst financial situation facing her business in her 15 years of running it
Mrs Farrell said she has resorting to cutting her opening hours and cleaning in the dark to save money. Pictured is her pub The Windsor Castle
Mrs Gibson. alongside other struggling publicans, is pleading for the Government to slash the VAT rate for the hospitality industry from 20 per cent to 10 per cent.
READ MORE: Britain’s ‘wonkiest pub’ where coins appear to roll uphill on the bar goes up for sale amid fears it will close after 192 years
The quirky entrance to the Crooked House, which brewers Marston’s is now looking to sell off
She claims this would have an immediate life-saving effect for many businesses, giving them breathing room to help absorb the ballooning cost of energy hikes.
She added: ‘We will keep fighting tooth and nail until we can’t fight anymore. We’re not asking for handouts but for a reasonable chance to survive.’
Greater London saw the most pubs either shutting forever or having been or stuck in long-term closure limbo, where no new owners having taken them on, with 98 affected in all.
In Greater Manchester, 23 sites closed permanently with a further 47 remaining empty, in a blow for the city.
The wider Yorkshire region has also suffered. West Yorkshire has seen 72 boozers close. While in South and North Yorkshire, 43 and 37 were lost, respectively. East Yorkshire saw four venues close forever with eight others being labelled as ‘long-term’ closures.
In Kent, 47 boozers have either shut, while in Hampshire the figure is 29. Staffordshire has lost 38 venues and in Shropshire 26 have gone. Somerset, England’s cider capital, lost 25 pubs.
Nik Antona, CAMRA’s national chairman, said the situation facing the industry was bleak, with 21 pubs a week shutting.
He warned brewers and pub owners will face ‘imminent hikes in their costs’ this month and appealed to punters to support venues at this ‘make-or-break time’.
He added: ‘Business rate relief schemes currently in place in England are due to end in 2024, so the Government needs to act soon. Pubs pay a grossly unfair portion of the total business rates bill, and proper reform is the only permanent fix to the issue.’
Wetherspoons pubs that are closing or being sold in 2023
All the 61 pubs that have been put up for sale in England and Wales by Marston’s Brewery
Emma McClarkin, Chief Executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, echoed his concerns and said pubs were ‘completely out of options.
‘Pubs across the country are on the edge of closure due to extortionate energy costs and absolutely nothing is being done to stop it,’ she told MailOnline.
‘Business owners are dreading the end of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, with the average pub needing to increase their turnover by 11 per cent overnight from March 30 to April 1 just to breakeven.
‘It isn’t right that suppliers are now paying less for energy, and yet small, community-minded pubs are still being forced to pay inflated rates to heat their buildings and keep their lights on.’
Wetherspoons, one of the UK’s biggest pub chains, said it is suffering. Earlier this year it announced plans to sell off 34 of its 800 sites as it struggled to cope with rising costs.
Three boozers belonging to the pub giant were shut permanently last month. Those on sale will share the same fate if no buyers are found.
Southport’s The Willow Grove, in Merseyside, was one of the latest sites to be axed, closing on Sunday
North and South Wales Bank, Wrexham, is another branch which has been confirmed as sold
Wetherspoons said its sales jumped at the end of 2022 but they were still below pre-pandemic levels. And while sales have dropped, costs have soared, especially for labour, food, energy and maintenance.
Its chairman Tim Martin said: ‘The aftermath of the pandemic and lockdown restrictions have been far more difficult than anyone thought. That is the picture for the whole pub and restaurant industry.
‘People thought that after lockdown there would be a boom in people suffering from cabin fever but, instead, it has almost been the opposite situation as people have got in the habit of staying in.
‘That’s the big thing that means sales are down on 2019. Things are improving now but it’s slow.’
It was a similar picture for Marston’s Brewery, which announced it would be flogging off dozens of its venues – including ‘Britain’s wonkiest’ pubs.
The firm has put 61 pubs up for sale following a review of its estate, made up of more than 1,400 venues across the UK
Pubs in the Midlands, Yorkshire, Sussex and Wales have been put on the market by Marston’s. Among them is 192-year-old Crooked House, West Midlands – which is famed for is wonky design.
The Crooked House, in Himley, Dudley, West Midlands, is dubbed Britain’s wonkiest pub – but it is among 61 of the boozers owned by Marston’s that have been put up for sale
The leaning boozer of Himley was built in 1765 as a farmhouse but became a pub in the 1830s with people flocking to see how one side is 4ft lower than the other
The ‘leaning boozer of Himley’ in Dudley was built in 1765 as a farmhouse but became a pub in the 1830s. Now it faces an uncertain future amid fears it could shut up shop for good if no buyers are found.
Bartenders often leave customers amazed with an optical illusion trick where coins and marbles seemingly roll uphill along the bar.
The site was built in 1765 as a farmhouse but became a pub in the 1830s with people flocking to see how one side is 4ft lower than the other.
But the unlikely tourist attraction now faces an uncertain future after brewers Marston’s announced it was being sold – just months after undergoing a makeover.
Locals are now worried the popular lopsided pub could be closed for good unless a suitable buyer is found.
Derrick McConell, 64, of Dudley, who has drank in the pub for more than 20 years, said the venue had struggled to get back on its feet following the pandemic.
He added: ‘It’s a brilliant pub but it’s had its issues like most despite it being such a unique place.
‘I know they struggled following Covid and then had to fork out money on renovations.’
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