09/09/2021
Hello Ladies and Gents,
My apologies for the radio silence, but I have been ill.
16 months of relentless stress and worry, constantly fighting insurance companies, landlords and Westminster Council, watching 40 years of hard work crumble to dust and being helpless to do anything about it, and the death of 3 fellow bar owners in Soho, two by su***de and one heart attack, took it’s toll and floored me.
I’m good at handling stress, but all that was too much even for me.
Thankfully my wife has managed to get a new job, so we can now pay the mortgage, and won’t loose the house as well. Thank god for one small mercy.
While I’ve been laid low, property agents have been searching for a new venue, but with no joy so far.
There’s been a couple that were too small, one that needed rebuilding, and one with only 2 toilets, down a staircase worse than the one in Manette St. That was a definite No.
I know many of you expected the Crobar to reopen as soon as we finished crowdfunding, and I wish I had a magic wand to make it happen. Unfortunately, it’s a bloody mess out there, and it’s proving to be more difficult than I’d hoped. Just getting some kind of meaningful insurance is impossible right now, and that’s causing huge problems for the whole entertainment industry.
Fingers crossed there will be no more lockdowns this winter, and we can get back to some kind of normality soon.
Take care of yourselves. I know I’m not the only one who’s struggled through all this mayhem.
The Crobar.
