Kate Moss, JT, Leon Bridges Help Save 700-Year-Old UK Pub

7 July 2016 | 9:07 am | Staff Writer

Would've been a shame to see a pub like that go

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A 700-year-old Georgian pub in London has been saved from potential disaster, thanks to a score of musicians, actors and models that have rallied to help, after developers purchased the block next door to turn it into a set of apartments.

As The Standard reports, The George Tavern's landlady Pauline Forster has succeeded in her bid to save the pub and music venue, popular with famous figures like Justin Timberlake, Sir Ian McKellan, Tilda Swinton and Georgia May Jagger, with the Court Of Appeal agreeing with Forster's claims that the redevelopment next door would pose noise complaint threats and lack of sunlight for the studios upstairs.

The court said that the planning inspector from the Swan Housing Association had failed to "set at rest" Forster's anxieties about the loss of light: "The inspector was bound to deal with them (the light concerns) and did not do so."

Forster's barrister also told the court that gigs on Friday and Saturday nights make up 82% of her revenue and that "she can’t afford to have any restriction on the live music licence, or the whole thing will become unviable".

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The pub is Grade II heritage-listed and was mentioned by writers like Geoffrey Chaucer, Samuel Pepys and Charles Dickens over the centuries. It hosts a bevy of up-and-coming musical acts as well as photoshoots upstairs with models like Kate Moss.

Leon Bridges, Grace Jones, John Cooper Clarke, Peaches Geldof and more have all rallied to support The George Tavern.