Empty again – maybe former pub should be a… pub
Estate agent says site could be a boutique fitness or an aesthetic clinic
Thursday, 11th June — By Daisy Clague
Brunch & Co is the latest business to close at the corner with Patshull Road
SOME will fondly remember it as Auntie Annie’s Porter House, others as the old Wolsey Arms.
But since the taps stopped pouring beer in 2014 at the corner building in Kentish Town Road, nothing seems to have worked as a replacement.
Residents have seen a revolving door of short-lived restaurants and cafés, each lasting no more than a year or two.
Now with the latest occupant, Brunch & Co shutting up shop earlier this year, the once unmissable red and yellow-painted building is vacant again, with post piling up on the doormat inside.
After the pub closed, the upper floors were converted into private flats and a succession of businesses tried to take over the shop-front.
There were attempts to open a branch of the Caribbean restaurant chain Turtle Bay and then a dental surgery fell away, as did rumours of a new estate agents Foxtons branch.
The all-day grill spot Smoky Corner moved in 2021, and the premises became Giotto Italian Restaurant a year or so after that.
When we asked New Journal readers on our Facebook pages what would succeed, many politely suggested a pub – as well as including nostalgic memories of times spent in the Porter House.
How the old Auntie Annie’s Porterhouse pub looked
The Campaign for Real Ale’s John Cryne told the New Journal it was unlikely.
“I suspect with 10 years having gone by, the people that may have used that pub at one time may be no more, or will have shifted their allegiance to Tapping the Admiral or another pub doing well in Kentish Town,” he said.
“It’s very rare that a pub closed that long would go back to being a pub.”
When asked about the prospects for the building, estate agent GCW, which is marketing the property, gave no sign that a pub was on the cards.
In an email to the New Journal, Ewan Stacey, a surveyor at GCW, said: “Some occupiers that would be great include coffee shops/restaurants/ retail/grab-and-go food but also more alternative tenants including boutique fitness, aesthetic clinic, dentist, pottery studio… someone that presents well.”
It remains to be seen what’s next to appear on the corner of the high street, but according to GCW’s website it will set them back some £75,000.
