It was announced yesterday that London’s legendary rock bar The Crobar will be closing its doors for good instead of re-opening after the Covid-19 pandemic. This sad news comes as no surprise since many have closed over the past few months from lack of business and financial support.

The owners posted a message explaining the situation on their social media platforms. They began, “It is with more sadness and anger than I have the words to express that I have to announce that The Crobar will be unable to re-open at it’s current location.”

This was followed up with, “If the insurance companies had paid out, we could have paid the rent and the staffs wages and survived. If the landlords had given us a rent discount or holiday, we could have survived. Sadly, our idiot government did not make either of them do what’s right, and now the bar and music industries are in tatters.”

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Dear All, It is with more sadness and anger than I have the words to express that I have to announce that The Crobar will be unable to re-open at it’s current location. If the insurance companies had paid out, we could have paid the rent and the staffs wages and survived. If the landlords had given us a rent discount or holiday, we could have survived. Sadly, our idiot government did not make either of them do what’s right, and now the bar and music industries are in tatters. Years and years of hard work by pub, bar and venue owners across the country have been destroyed in the blink of an eye, and all because of the greed of a few ‘land barons’ Why did our government let this happen? Oh, that’s right, they are the land barons! On the up side, my 7 year old daughter pointed out to me that all I have to do is open a new Crobar, so that’s what I’m going to do. I aim to open a new Crobar with both a bar and a live music venue. It will require crowd funding, and I suspect it will be a year or so before opening will be viable, but fuck the greedy insurance companies, fuck the greedy short sighted landlords and fuck our brainless government…….we will be back! Long live Rock n’ Roll

A post shared by The Crobar (@thecrobarsoho) on Sep 20, 2020 at 12:17pm PDT

Despite this, there is a silver lining: the venue will re-open in a new location as a bar and music venue, with the support of music fans. Through crowd funding, a new Crobar will continue the unique experience artists and gig-goers have grown to love. The owners expect fundraising to take about a year.

The Crobar first opened in 2001 and became known for its jukebox containing the most popular rock and metal tracks of all time. It hosted many celebrities including Slash, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden, Metallica, and even Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. It also became one of Dave Grohl’s (Foo Fighters) favourite places to visit; he once hired out the bar to hold an after-party for one of the band’s Wembley Stadium shows.