Christmas diners hit by the closure of the Fox and Hounds in Fair Oak (From Daily Echo)
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Christmas diners hit by the closure of the Fox and Hounds in Fair Oak
8:58am Saturday 15th November 2008 in
-
- By Corey Stephenson » Senior News and Video Reporter
A HAMPSHIRE pub has closed down and been abandoned by its managers despite taking bookings and deposits for scores of Christmas dinners.
Enterprise Inns, owners of the Fox and Hounds in Fair Oak, have been forced to reclaim the lease of the pub in Winchester Road after landlord Rob Ide shut the premises without warning.
It is believed dozens of social groups and works Christmas parties could lose out after paying up to £10 a head for their Christmas dinner at the popular watering hole.
Have you lost your Christmas booking and deposit from the pub? Contact the Daily Echo newsdesk on 023 8042 4522
Pub regulars are now struggling to change Christmas dinner plans and have been unable to contact Mr Ide to ask him for their money back.
One customer, who asked not to be named, said: “They have been taking £10 a head for work dos and they never said anything about closing down.”
Sue Hadlow, who runs a regular poker league that meets twice a week at the pub, said they only found out days before the pub closed its doors.
“We had our final night there the day before and the landlord stayed away and never made an appearance.”
The poker team, with dozens of members, has now relocated to the nearby Queen’s Head pub in Fishers Pond.
A member of staff at the Queen’s Head said they have already taken a number of bookings for people who need to rearrange their Christmas event from the Fox and Hounds, but were unable to help get deposits back as they were owned by a different company.
It is believed the pub was facing financial difficulty with the lack of trade due to the credit crunch.
When the Daily Echo telephoned the business the call was met by an answer machine, but it was impossible to leave a message as the machine was full.
Yesterday the Fox and Hounds was empty with a notice from Enterprise Inns saying they had “re-entered” the pub and anyone with any inquiries about the business should contact them.
Licensing chiefs at Eastleigh Council also said they had not been informed of any changes to the pub’s licence.
A spokesman for Enterprise Inns said: “The previous leaseholder has been contacted and he is aware of his responsibilities to pay back the money taken for Christ-mas party deposits.”
Comments(20)
Family Man
says...
9:47am Sat 15 Nov 08
If that is indeed the case, then the pattern that is emerging says more about the Company than the landlords.
Sly Stallone
says...
10:46am Sat 15 Nov 08
Condor Man
says...
10:59am Sat 15 Nov 08
King Mush
says...
11:48am Sat 15 Nov 08
Cheap supermarket booze and many people choosing to slump in a sofa to watch dumbed down TV adds to the equation.
Many pub chains are run by number-crunching idiots who have no real idea of how important any pub is to the local community plus they just want to offload the land for any property developer to build more flats, care homes etc.
Sly Stallone can try and be sarcastic but the Yanks have always been jealous of the UK pub scene.
Likewise - the Yanks were jealous of our magnificent Concorde and made every effort to curtail its viability with pathetic 'noise pollution' wangles and much more.
Stubs
says...
11:52am Sat 15 Nov 08
obelisker
says...
1:48pm Sat 15 Nov 08
Sly Stallone wrote:"Thanksgiving", speak English man, it's Christmas in our green and pleasant land!
OMG! Shout the Brits! Our public house has closed, what are we to do this Thanksgiving ??? ... There's always reality TV for you guys I guess.
hulla baloo
says...
2:19pm Sat 15 Nov 08
Stubs wrote:Why?
Fair play to the Landlord.
King Mush
says...
2:41pm Sat 15 Nov 08
obelisker wrote:Yeah right on!
Sly Stallone wrote: OMG! Shout the Brits! Our public house has closed, what are we to do this Thanksgiving ??? ... There's always reality TV for you guys I guess."Thanksgiving", speak English man, it's Christmas in our green and pleasant land!
Yanks SHOULD give thanks to their founding fathers. Most of them coming from our shores and nearby countries all those centuries ago.
Never forget your roots buddy!
Derek of Dibden Purlieu
says...
3:09pm Sat 15 Nov 08
King Mush wrote:Not wishing to confuse the argument but Thanksgiving Day in the US is something akin to our Harvest Festival and is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November (27/11/08). This is what Sly is referring to, not Christmas.
obelisker wrote:Yeah right on!
Sly Stallone wrote: OMG! Shout the Brits! Our public house has closed, what are we to do this Thanksgiving ??? ... There's always reality TV for you guys I guess."Thanksgiving", speak English man, it's Christmas in our green and pleasant land!
Yanks SHOULD give thanks to their founding fathers. Most of them coming from our shores and nearby countries all those centuries ago.
Never forget your roots buddy!
Finlay
says...
3:57pm Sat 15 Nov 08
Its to celebrate the Pilgrim Fathers arrival here and not even observed in many many places and Iowa is one such place.
It was the 29th last year so I guess it took a week or so for all the PF's to get here and set up the Amana Colonies.
Gov offices and postal service are off for the day but thats about all.
It snowed last night and the local fears are that if it snows before Thanksgiving then the winter will be bad. It did last year and it was the worst winter in living memory so its too cold to go anywhere anyway. Most just treat it as another working day.
obelisker
says...
4:36pm Sat 15 Nov 08
Derek of Dibden Purlieu wrote:Thanks Dec, but if you read sly's post you will see that he is parodying us simple Brits and our love of pubs in a supposed quote, I kindly pointed out that Thanksgiving would not be a term we would need to use! You don't work for the Yanks over in Dibden do you?....got any gum chum.....
King Mush wrote:Not wishing to confuse the argument but Thanksgiving Day in the US is something akin to our Harvest Festival and is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November (27/11/08). This is what Sly is referring to, not Christmas.
obelisker wrote:Yeah right on!
Sly Stallone wrote: OMG! Shout the Brits! Our public house has closed, what are we to do this Thanksgiving ??? ... There's always reality TV for you guys I guess."Thanksgiving", speak English man, it's Christmas in our green and pleasant land!
Yanks SHOULD give thanks to their founding fathers. Most of them coming from our shores and nearby countries all those centuries ago.
Never forget your roots buddy!
MattProbert
says...
5:08pm Sat 15 Nov 08
The Grey Mystery
says...
6:18pm Sat 15 Nov 08
Family Man
says...
7:31pm Sat 15 Nov 08
"Enterprise Inns, next largest chain with just under eight thousand pubs, are meanwhile blaming their landlords for the troubles they are in. CEO Ted Tuppen was quoted recently as saying: 'These difficult times will have found out a number of lower quality lessees…'
He admitted that over twelve hundred Enterprise pubs were boarded up or on special short-term contracts and as many more were receiving rental or beer supply concessions."
As I said, I think it says more about Enterprise Inns than landlords who are suffering punitive prices on tied beer purchases, astronomical rents, and falling trade. And these PUbcos keep their landlords very much at arms length when it comes to liabilities, but very close when it comes to assets and purchasing. Frankly these Pubcos couldn't give a **** as they an always fall back on the value of the estate for redevelopment rather than the efforts of landlords to scratch a living!
Vonnie
says...
12:03am Sun 16 Nov 08
Family Man wrote:I suspect that there is a lot more to this story than meets the eye, or will ever be made public. The landlord is being portrayed as the villain of the peice, but I wonder........
Isn't this the third Enterprise Inn in exactly the same circumstances in as many months within this area? If that is indeed the case, then the pattern that is emerging says more about the Company than the landlords.
Enterprise hasn't applied for a change of licence and that says a lot. Family Man of Bitterne has picked up the same pattern as I had. I will wait for further developments.
Punkin
says...
2:18am Sun 16 Nov 08
"Its to celebrate the Pilgrim Fathers arrival here and not even observed in many many places and Iowa is one such place."
Huh? Always thought Thanksgiving was celebrated all over the USA.
"Gov offices and postal service are off for the day but thats about all."
Have never worked a Thanksgiving or the following Friday in my life, cept when I lived in England. ???? (and I don't work in gov or post office)
"Most just treat it as another working day."
Again, ???? Never known anybody that worked on Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday, cept my sister who once worked at a hospital.
Maybe Iowa's different?? dunno...
now in the north
says...
9:00am Sun 16 Nov 08
This is absolutely correct. Not only that, but when you put your hard earned cash into obtaining a lease, you have to abide by their rules.
A pal of mine recently opened up to find the roof leaking and the pub flooded. He then had to get worker in to correct it as an expense but he was contractedt o only use the breweries contractors. They took nearly a week (and in the north, thats a lot of rain) to repair the damage. He then had to clean everything up for reopen, all out of his own pocket.
On several occasions the brewery failed to deliver supplies with various excuses, And has they had both the money for the supplies and a contract saying he could only buy from them, he spent several days closed down then too. His pub closed 4-5 months ago. His family lost all their investment...the brewery siply got someone else to invest their hard earned cash into the pub!
King Mush
says...
2:39pm Sun 16 Nov 08
They see it as a 'fun' way of life before realising how hard it is to run a boozer with all the pitfalls.
Long hours - keeping an eye on thieving staff- sorting out the troublemakers-battli
ng with the pubchain giants who literally have them over a beer-barrel.
It takes a degree of brains and common sense with a good business brain - I've often been surprised to discover a major lack of these attributes when casually chatting to these people.
Many chav pubs seem to be run by like-minded peers who turn a blind eye to the drugs, swag-dealing and all that goes on.
Even naive people decide to plough their hard earned savings into a pub but find out out it's not the bed of roses that they imagined.
B. L.
says...
7:53pm Sun 16 Nov 08
ex so'ton
says...
8:46pm Sun 16 Nov 08
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