Landmark High Road Pub in Surprise Closure Announcement
The Crown shuts suddenly after failed attempt to sell venue
The Crown on Chiswick High Road this Friday
March 23, 2024
The Crown pub and restaurant on Chiswick High Road has closed this week after operating for six years.
No formal announcement has been made but customers attempting to making bookings are receiving a reply that “due to the current nature of the business the decision to close with immediate effect has been made by the owners” and the premises are currently closed up. The online booking system informs you that the next available table is on 31 December 2027.
Attempts to contact The Crown for confirmation are met with an auto-reply with the same message which adds that all staff have been made redundant and “are exempt of any responsibility in relation to the Company.”
The site, parts of which date back to the seventeenth century, used to be Chiswick’s police station before it was moved across the road to the site being converted into retirement flats. Previously it was home to Carvossos, a popular pub and restaurant, but was bought by Harcourt Inns in 2017 and then expensively refitted. The freehold pub has seating for around 39 people in the bar area with the restaurant able to accommodate 72 as well as tables on the pavement at the front of the building and a terrace at the rear. There is a private dining room in which eight people can be served and four hotel bedrooms.
It is one of three pubs own by Harcourt Inns which was founded in 2014 by James McCulloch who brought in Henry Harris, formerly of Racine in Chelsea and the Soho House Group, to oversee the group’s food offering. However, the group was badly hit by the pandemic and Mr Harris departed in 2020.
In November 2022, Harcourt Inns put all its properties on the market including The Crown which was listed as a going concern at a price of £3,750,000 but it appears there were no takers and the company was dissolved in October 2023 with James McCulloch as the sole remaining director.
Another local business owner suggested that was being run by administrators since that time and they decided to cease trading as there was no evidence that the business could be run profitably.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
