An award-winning 200-year-old pub is set to go under the hammer at a dramatically slashed price.
The London Tavern in Margate is the latest boozer looking for new owners at a rate well below the original ask.
With its asking price sitting at a quarter of a million, it represents a huge drop from the £650,000 tag estate agents put on the site in October 2022.
The former Cobb’s and Shepherd Neame establishment in Addington Street has had a chequered past in recent times, with various setbacks forcing customers to look elsewhere for a pint.
Taken over in 2016, the London Tavern underwent work as landlords Carl and Nancy Hilliard looked to make their mark.
In 2017, the boozer was deemed the pub of the year for Thanet by CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale.
However, following health issues the Hilliards decided to retire and put the pub up for sale in 2018 for £525,000 before going to auction two years later for £400,000.
The Tiny Dancer group bought the tavern in December 2021 for £425,000 and reopened it the following January.
However, it was forced to close as the landlords struggled to make the business viable – with workers last pulling pints in September 2022.
The ground floor is split into two main areas served by a large single bar servery.
To the rear of the bar is the dining area which leads to the outside patio – with a commercial kitchen and customer toilets also present.
The first floor is dedicated to residential accommodation with a living room, bedroom, bathroom and shower room.
Ancillary accommodation is provided at basement level and comprises a cellar and additional stores.
The building itself is a two-storey 18th-century hostelry with two late 19th-century single-storey extensions and was formerly known as the Shakespeare Tavern when it first opened.
The London Tavern first made an appearance on maps in 1821 as The London Hotel.
From 1858 until the early 1990s it became known as the London Tavern after which it was rebranded as Everybody’s Inn.
By 2015, it reverted back to its previous name.
The tavern is situated across the road from the Theatre Royal and its association with it is long-lived, with it said many famous thespians spent time agonising over their lines in the bar.
Lambert Smith Hampton will auction the property online on May 15.
