23/02/2024
I’m full of sorrow but the time has come for me to make a huge decision 💔 appreciate understanding and support, thanks for all your custom ♥️♥️♥️
After months of deliberation I’ve come to make a really difficult decision to close The Yeoman for the foreseeable future. I don’t know what comes next, but for now I have come to accept there isn’t space for a place like this to exist in the current climate and that change is the only way forwards.
Despite my best efforts, it’s become increasingly challenging to sustain the business as things stand. I have been surviving on loans and personal savings but my debts are building and I have hit a brick wall, unable to manifest the funds to cover running costs, to purchase necessary stock and to do basic maintenance.
The aftermath of the pandemic, the rising cost of living, a trend in healthier drinking habits and a curb in going out, matched with ever shrinking margins on sales and ever rising running costs leave little room for me to keep holding on.
The last eight years in the pub have been a dream. I have had the pleasure to share so many amazing experiences with you. You have brought my living room to life with dancing, laughter, music, mischief and joy. We have drank, shared great food, enjoyed so much incredible music, comedy, theatre and so so so much more. We’ve all shared the privilege of seeing so many musicians skills and confidence grow over the years. We’ve had a superhero mega band visit from Columbia and seen a clown light a firework in his bum - twice! 😂 We’ve cultivated an awesome community, the friendliest pub ever, a welcoming place for people of all walks of life. And the good times, the community, the friendships and the laughter is something we ALL get to treasure forever!
I love you all and I love this pub. The challenges have been almost endless and the learning has never stopped, but the triumphs have been so worth it all. There’s been a million reasons to beam with joy and I am so proud to know all of you wonderful people who have been so kind, so much fun and so supportive of everything I’ve tried to do between these walls.
Sadly change is inevitable now, and I hope that The Yeoman lives on in one way or another. For the time being, I need to go get a proper job so I can support myself through the difficult financial times we are all facing so I can feel like I can breathe again.
Thanks everyone for everything. I’d like to have a big party on the 2nd of March so any musicians who would be interested in playing, please give me a shout, let’s have a big yeoman send off and drink the bar dry.
And let’s all hope, for all our sakes, that easier times are on their way.
