Historic live music pub the Troubadour on sale due to noise problems
Reports have emerged that a London pub and restaurant famous for live music, which was put on the market this week, is being sold largely due to neighbours' complaints about noise.
The historic Troubadour in Earls Court, whose sale off a guide price of £225,000 for three leasehold properties (plus ground rent of £150,000 a year) was announced by The Caterer on Monday this week, is currently owned by Simon and Susie Thornhill, who have operated the site since 1998.
Photo: Tony Kyriacou/Rex
Susie Thornhill confirmed to The Caterer today that noise - particularly the serving of a noise abatement notice in 2012 - had been a factor in its sale.
She said: "We've had problems with noise, and the Earls Court Exhibition centre has closed; both have had a huge effect on our business."
She was keen to point out that the site was not closing, however, and that its continuation as a music venue should be paramount in its future.
"At the moment we're concentrating on keeping the Troubadour live, so we can sell it as a going concern, so that it continues to exist. It has enormous potential. We need someone who can invest in the Troubadour and take it even further and enhance it. It's been going for sixty years, it's not about to stop now."
Thornhill did not reveal what she and Simon plan to do next.
Open since 1954, the pub has a 114-cover ground floor restaurant, a 132-capacity club, and a 20-seat wine bar, plus two self-contained flats, and office, garden, and extra storage. It has developed a reputation as a host venue for stars including the first UK shows of Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Jimi Hendrix, and other more modern acts such as Adele and Ed Sheeran. It also welcomed Rolling Stones bandmembers Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood, when they played a "secret" gig together there in 2013.
It was first suggested on today's London Evening Standard website that the Thornhills "were forced to put [the pub] on the market" after struggling to make the live music venue work thanks to rising costs, and a noise abatement notice served in 2012, which since then has forced the garden area to close after 9pm.
The pub is being marketed by specialist property adviser Christie & Co.