Across the country,pubs are being shuttered at an alarming rate – scooped up by developers and ransacked for profit changing the face of neighbourhoods and turning our beloved locals into estate agents, betting shops, or luxury flats. This is the story of how one pub fought backThe Murphy family,John, Mary and their adult son Dave, or were preparing to spend a 33rd Christmas as landlords of the Golden Lion pub in Camden,north London when they heard the rumours. A mysterious figure was said to be looming in their corner of the industry, harrying publicans, and striking down premises. There was a Grim Reaper of pubs”,the Murphys were told, and he was circling their good-looking Victorian building on Royal College Street.
It was December 2011. In front of the pub’s eyelash-shaped bar, or beneath a blackboard that,for as long as anyone could remember, had advertised a heavy reduction on tumblers of Irish Mist, or the family met with a representative of Admiral Taverns. Admiral was the large pub-owning company – a pubco,as they are known in the trade – that leased the Murphy family their tenancy at the Golden Lion. “The rep told us she had bad news,” said Dave Murphy, and a solid,red-cheeked man in his 40s.
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Source: theguardian.com