Another micropub for Bexley borough – this time in Falconwood
Charge your glasses. Plans for another micropub named the Bolt Hole have been submitted for a site in Folconwood (though the application says Welling – if it is Welling let me know and I’ll change the headline).
The site at 12 Falconwood Parade was an insurance office.
Micropubs have grown hugely in popularity over recent years since it was made easier to convert small units in 2005. Bexley borough has some of the most in London. They differ from standard pubs with reduced hours (often only the evenings and not past 11pm) and no music. This one will close at 10:30pm.
The application states: “there will be no electronic entertainment (sky sports, gambling machines, karaoke nights), instead the entertainment is conversations
amongst fellow locals and beer enthusiasts who have travelled from
around and out of the borough.”
Wasn’t this the business model for Weatherspoons at first, until thay found it didn’t pay
Wetherspoons’ early pubs (from 1979 onwards) were small traditional pre-existing pubs which Tim Martin and his associates were able to buy free of tie — they still have a couple, like the Drum in Leyton. In those days few people considered the idea of converting premises previously put to other uses into pubs and it would have been much more difficult to do in the days when magistrates issued licenses, before that duty was transferred to councils. Later they began converting much bigger buildings into pubs: big shops, banks, cinemas etc. I think the micropub model is rather different — a low-cost independent business in a small unit that’s just enough to provide its owner with an income. Some of them have such a low turnover they’re not even VAT-registered. And they certainly seem to be doing well in areas where many traditional pubs have closed. But they share with Wetherspoons’ model the advantage that buildings not previously pubs are much less likely to be tied to breweries or pubcos, so the owners are free to buy whatever stock they want to sell at market prices.
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