A PUB that loyal regulars praised as a “community staple” has served its last pint as prospective buyers look set to order a makeover. 

 

The Old Oak pub in Mansfield Road, Gospel Oak, held a “goodbye ceremony”, which sad customers said was “more like a wake than a leaving party”, last Wednesday.

 

“It was pretty depressing to be honest,” said Ron Laitly, 64, who lives on the Kiln Place Estate. “We all knew it was coming. They planned the leaving ceremony for about a week but a lot of people didn’t want to go, because there’s no point going for one last one. 

 

“It was more like a wake than a leaving party. People were sitting there like it was somebody’s funeral. I suppose in a way it was a funeral, because you know it’s going to turn into another pub where none of us are going to go.”

 

He added: “It will be for all the suited types who have suddenly moved here, the ones who would walk into the Oak and then walk out again, they’ve made it their own now. We all knew they would, it was just a question of time.”

 

Regulars claimed the landlady had been in charge of the lease for six years.

 

Richard Decker, 51, who drank in The Old Oak for 20 years, said the lease was “naturally coming to expire anyway”.

 

He added: “It was a combination of that and the bills. There were a lot of pubs like that in this area, and now it’s a walk to get to the next one.”

 

He said regulars were trying to find comfort in the Southampton Arms in Highgate Road and the Westport Inn in Malden Road. “If you go into either one now they’re a lot busier because it’s closed down,” said Mr Decker. 

 

This week a “pub business to let” sign was nailed to the premises, with the name of freeholders Enterprise Inns. Amanda Pritchard, who formed Stanley Pubs this year, and owns the Tufnell Park Tavern and The Lord Stanley, told the New Journal that one of her employees was a “prospective buyer in the final stages of securing it outright”.

 

She added: “It’s still very much up in the air. Everything is not 100 per cent certain yet. There’s the hope it will all go through and there are plans for it. It will be different to what it was like, it needs refurbishment, it needs a paint job, and we have plans to sell food there. Would I call it a gastropub? It very much depends on your definition of gastropub. It will be serving food and it will be different to what it was. Perhaps some of the current clientele may not like it, maybe some of them will, but many people will.”

 

A sign for VPS Vacant Property Specialists was also nailed to the walls of the pub. A spokeswoman for the firm confirmed it had been hired by a “commercial client” to ensure no squatters took over the building until a new leaseholder had been confirmed. A spokeswoman for Enterprise Inns said: “The Old Oak is still being advertised and nothing has been finalised.”

 

The pub’s former landlady was unavailable for comment.