A dozen former George staff will be returning to the pub when it re-opens as the George & Dragon in the third week in January. They will be among 40 full-time and 20 part-time positions at the pub, which is now nearing the end of its refurbishment. External decoration looks excellent, and the bar has re-relocated to the middle of the pub where it used to be.
The pub was saved from oblivion after Wetherspoons decided to shut it. It was acquired by Urban Pubs and Bars, the largest independent pub chain in London, which has 52 pubs, bars and restaurants.
They may be bringing back a dozen former staff, but I bet they won’t also be bringing back Wetherspoon prices.
Is your last paragraph correct?
I understand Weatherspoons lease from Mr A Sugar expired and the new company took the lease?
If true it’s not exactly “saving “ the George!
I think the point being that with any pub closure there could be a danger of using the opportunity to pursue a change of use. I suspect the author is implying that the pub has been saved from that, rather than the George itself. Which whilst disappointingly it is not Wetherspoons, it is still inarguably a good thing.
The last paragraph is correct. Spoons had a lease on the George that would have run until 2034. They put the remaining term of the lease up for sale.
Where the article is a bit woolly is where is about Urban Pubs & Bars. They are a private-equity backed group sitting under a Jersey BidCo & TopCo structre. Independent? I doubt that the local independent pubs think so.