Save The Old White Bear

29/12/2023

To all friends of The Old White Bear - the pub’s status as an Asset of Community Value expires in January. For those of you that remember, the ACV status played a vital part not only in saving the pub in 2014 but also when we successfully applied to renew it in 2019.

If you would like to see it renewed once again (and we very much hope you will) and can spare two minutes of your time, please do visit our website at oldwhitebear.com

Happy new year to you all!

The Old White Bear at Hampstead

16/12/2021

The Bear is open!
This will be our last post as the new owners take the reins. We wish them all the success that the pub deserves.

Please see our final update here:
www.oldwhitebear.com

The Old White Bear pub in Hampstead, London, NW3.

02/09/2021

Finally, the news that we have all been waiting for!

Over seven years on from when our pub was first closed down, The Old White Bear will be reopening soon under the stewardship of The Leeds Brewery, an independent pub company who also run The Albert in Primrose Hill and The Haverstock Arms in Chalk Farm.

We understand that Heathside School will continue to rent the two upstairs floors of the building (for now at least) and the new landlord is confident that the two businesses can operate alongside each other.

Once we have firm details of the reopening plans we will update this page to let you know but the plan is to have the doors open in time for Christmas. In the meantime, both the Camden New Journal and the Ham and High are running updates on the story.

This news is obviously a massive testament to the thousands of people who supported our objections to the two original planning applications, our original application to make the pub an Asset of Community Value and the successful renewal of that status five years later. It really is no understatement to say that the pub would not be there today if it had not been for all of your astonishing support.

Thank you!

http://camdennewjournal.com/article/historic-old-white-bear-pub-in-hampstead-will-open-again

https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/business/hampstead-pub-old-white-bear-to-reopen-8289592

24/02/2019

Good news! Camden Council have have renewed The Old White Bear's Asset of Community Value status for a further five years!

This is in no small part due to the overwhelming response from the pub's amazing supporters - over 800 of you responded to the survey that we sent out in December asking if you would return to the pub if it were to re-open (98.2% of you said Yes!).

In addition, just under 600 people wrote persuasive responses as to why the pub continues to matter so much to the local community - we sent every single one of your responses to the Council.

We also have to thank our three local Councillors who submitted a very powerful letter of support which convincingly argued that, despite being closed for five years, the pub is still essential to Hampstead village.

Finally, we are very grateful for strong press support from the Camden New Journal, Ham&High and the Hampstead Village Voice.

So, where does this leave us?

As most of you now know, the Old White Bear has been owned since December 2014 by Melissa Remus Elliot, the owner and Headmistress of local private school Heathside Prep. In 2017, Camden Council granted permission for the school to use the upstairs floors during school hours and term-time only. Outside of these times, the floors are reserved for use by the pub.

This permission was granted based on a statement to the Council that a lease for the entire building was about to be granted to established pub operator Bramley Bars who in turn would allow Heathside to use the upstairs rooms during the restricted hours. Bramley went ahead and obtained a premises licence for the building but to date the company has yet to be offered any terms for a full commercial lease.

In December 2017, Mrs. Elliot instead granted a lease for the building to Heathside. Its usage as a pub now therefore appears be at the discretion of the school.

We will continue to campaign and lobby for the pub to be reopened across all floors, as permitted by Camden Council, and will of course update you as and when there is any further progress.

In the meantime, thank you all once again for your tremendous support!

08/12/2018

Thank you for featuring our campaign on your front page this week.

If you have a spare moment this weekend to fill in the survey on our website at https://oldwhitebear.com we'd be very grateful ... :-)

http://camdennewjournal.com/article/race-to-save-bid-to-re-open-historic-old-white-bear-pub?

05/12/2018

It’s been a while but we need your help once again!
Camden Council would like to know if you’d still drink at The Old White Bear if it reopened tomorrow?

If you could spend five seconds answering this question at our website below, it would make all the difference to renewing the Asset of Community Value status for the pub, which as you all know is so important to the pubs future.

oldwhitebear.com

We are still fighting and hope to return some day!

The Save The Old White Bear group is a formal association representing all users of The Old White Bear in Hampstead, London which closed on February 2nd, 2014. The freehold of the pub was sold to Isle of Man company Braaid Ventures Ltd in July 2013 with the leasehold following soon after.

19/01/2017

A plan to resurrect the Old White Bear pub in Hampstead by sharing its upper floors with a school has been given the go-ahead.

20/05/2016

Despite some "work" going on at the pub there is still no news. The scaffolding has now been up for a very long time and although they have recently added some awful cladding to it, as far as we are aware nothing has changed.
We are keeping a constant eye on the pub and will continue to do for as long as it takes!

22/09/2015

You may have seen some news today about the pub being for sale.

Just to reassure you all that the Save The Old White Bear Group are on the case and looking into all the options.

We appreciate all your support in our fight for the pub and will update with any relevant details when we have them.

11/03/2015

No news as yet but in the meantime for anyone that lives near the pub or wants to help!

This development involves the demolition of the former nurses home and the construction of 17 luxury flats, together with a 3-storey deep basement. This nurses home currently contains 70 units for housing. It is practically on the doorstep of 3 primary schools and 2 nurseries. The proposed developme…

09/10/2014

For those of you that live near the pub you may have seen the signs...The Bear will reopen.

We don't have a date yet but as soon as we find out anything else we will let you know.

Unfortunately it is not with the same fantastic staff but hopefully we will have a great pub!