Boycott of Chiswick Pub Threatened after Management Ousted

Future of The Queen's Head uncertain after freeholder takes possession

The Queen's Head in Chiswick

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May 27, 2024

There has been a furious reaction from regulars at The Queen’s Head pub in Chiswick following the sudden departure of the existing management.

It is understood that the team lead by Aneta Barratt have been made to leave the premises under circumstances which remain unclear.

Formerly The Smokehouse, and before that the Hole in the Wall, the pub, which is just behind the Porsche garage on Sutton Lane North, was relaunched in March 2018 as The Queen’s Head, an independent family run pub.

Since then, it has built up a reputation for providing excellent Sunday roasts and grilled food and has accumulated a loyal following in an area where a number of other pubs have shut down in recent years. The pub’s large garden at the rear is a popular spot during any fine weather seen during the summer months.

In an email to customers the former Queen’s Head team said, “We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you but also good bye. The time for us has been special, meeting many new friends and spending time with you either in the garden, by the fire or at many of the special events we have had together. Relaxing, laughing, sharing the odd drink together but mainly enjoying your company, you have made our time special, we have experienced the ups and downs of life but always with your support.

“It has been a roller coaster of time with Covid, inflation and the impact of war but at the heart of this has always been the knowledge that our locals have been on the journey with us.

“As an Independently run local Pub, situated in the backstreets of Chiswick it has not been easy but your support from when we took over from the Smokehouse has been overwhelming and will remain with us forever.”

A number of customers of the pub have contacted us to say they are extremely angry at what has happened. We have been unable to contact the freeholder of the Nowell Parr designed pub or the former management, but it has not been opened on the several occasions we have visited it over the last few days to get confirmation of what has happened. The pub’s listing on Google says that it is permanently closed and according to one report it has not been serving since Tuesday (21 May).

The Companies House listing of Barratt Business Hospitality Ltd, which traded as The Queen’s Head, shows that the company continues to operate but it did see a significant increase in net liabilities up until the account date of February 2023.

According to one report it was required to spend £75,000 on legal fees to try and continue to operate at the site and no payment has been offered for the fixtures and fittings installed by the leaseholder.

One former regular says, “My understanding is that the lease was terminated despite a legal challenge being made and the freeholder wants to relaunch either with a new tenant or by directly managing the pub. They will struggle to make a go of it because a large proportion of the customer base walks to pub and chose to do so because they recognised the blood, sweat and tears that went into making a go of it particularly through recent challenging time”.

Another contacted us to say, “Most locals are going to boycott the pub now after the freeholders threw out the current landlords after 6 years turning the pub into a community hub. Shoddy behaviour on their part.”

Aneta Barratt was a customer of the pub living in the Kew Bridge area when she decided to take over the venue along with another Chiswick local Max Pintus with Craig Anderson as general manager. Back in her native Poland her family own a hotel, so she was familiar with the hospitality industry although she had never run a pub before. She took on the existing kitchen team from The Smokehouse, which had been owned by Noble House Inns, so that the food maintained an emphasis on grilled meats.

The choice of the name The Queen’s Head was a return to the first recorded name of a pub on the site when it was granted an official licence to sell beer in 1856 although a public house is believed to have existed on the site since 1722.