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Business is not brilliant' in the pub trade says Auld Triangle landlord Martin Joyce (inset) |
Use it or lose it, landlord tells pub protesters
Challenge to writers and former Prescott aide fighting plans to turn building into flats
CAMPAIGNERS who fear a Finsbury Park pub will be turned into flats were challenged by its landlord this week: if you want to save it become a regular.
Protesters oppose plans to turn the 100-year-old The Auld Triangle into flats but landlord Martin Joyce maintains many of them are not even regulars at the pub on the corner of Plimsoll Road and St Thomas’s Road.
One of the campaigners, ex-Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott’s former political assistant Tony Sophoclides, 40, said: “I’ve been coming to The Auld Triangle from the days when it used to be called the Plimsoll.
“We’ve already got plenty of flats in the area and don’t need any more. But we are losing our pubs in London and that’s not good.
Mr Sophoclides, who lives in Romney Road, added: “This is a residential area and an important pub on the route to Arsenal. It’s a very nice pub and should be a going concern.”
Another campaigner, Nicollete Jones, is author of the award-winning Plimsoll Sensation, a novel inspired by the pub’s previous name.
“I thought up many of my best ideas here,” she said. It’s a great pub and we don’t want to lose it. They also have wonderful Irish music on Sunday evenings.”
Tim Bradford, writer and illustrator of The Ground Water Diaries, said the pub was always warm and welcoming.
“It’s been the centre of the Irish community for years,” he added. “It’s like a social centre attracting people from all walks of life.”
Peter May, journalist and author of soon-to-be-published eco book, There’s a Hippo in My Cistern, enjoys watching the pub’s Sky TV, particularly when his team, West Ham, are playing.
“We must all try and support this pub and come out for a drink more often,” he said.
Mr Joyce has called on all those who want to save their Triangle to put “their money where their mouths are” and become regulars.
He is seeking planning permission from Islington Council to convert the award-winning pub into flats. “Business is not brilliant in the pub trade,” he said. “In Ireland, for example, they lost 800 pubs last year. People are not drinking out so much as before, particularly since the ban on smoking. Some week nights we can be almost empty.
“The decision to go for planning permission for the flats is a kind of insurance. I don’t intend to convert the pub at the moment but if things continue to get bad it will be an option.
“I have to say that the majority of people who demonstrated outside the pub against the plan are not regular customers.
“So I say to them: Yes, by all means let’s save The Auld Triangle, but I need customers to come in and spend money and support me.” |
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