Soho favourite the Coach and Horses to host goodbye party as Fuller’s take over

Landlords: Hollie Choat with her father Alastair outside the Coach and Horses

Landlords at the legendary Soho boozer the Coach and Horses are planning one last hurrah, after it was confirmed that Fuller’s brewery are to take control of the pub.

The Coach has pledged to go out with a bang, hosting a street party on June 15 – just over a week before the pub officially changes hands on June 23.

Taking place between noon until closing, the afternoon promises live bands and what the venue claims is 'Soho’s first summer pub garden'. It will be free to attend and is set to feature a live broadcast from Soho Radio.

Independent landlords Alastair Choat and Hollie Choat launched a petition to save the pub earlier this year, which garnered more than 11,000 signatures.

The Coach and Horses has been run by Mr Choat since 2006, who turned it into the capital’s first vegan and vegetarian pub. It was sold to the Fuller, Smith & Turner company in 2011.

Famous clientele: Peter O'Toole enjoys a pint outside the Coach & Horses pub in Soho
Mike Forster/Associated Newspapers

Choat had fighting to stop his pub becoming “vanilla” after brewery Fuller’s refused to renew his lease, which expired on June 1.

Speaking to the Standard before the takeover was confirmed, Mr Choat said: "The people make the Coach and Horses. The Coach and Horses didn’t make the people.

"People feel secure here. They know, even if they’re down and out, even if they’re having a bad time – or a great time! – or if they’ve been up all night and they’ve fallen through the doors at 11 o’clock in the morning: they know they’ll be taken care of.

"They'll be taken care of, rather than: ‘get out’ or ‘you’re too drunk’ or ‘we can’t can’t deal with you now’. It’s a sense of security."

The Greek Street venue is one of London’s most iconic pubs. It became one of the most famous the capital when run by “London’s rudest landlord”, Norman Balon. It also famously played hosted to patrons including Peter O’Toole, Dylan Thomas and Lucian Freud.

O’Toole was the first to play the title role in the Keith Waterhouse play Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell, which is set inside the pub and recently had a revival there starring Robert Bathurst.

"I had a wonderful chance to meet him [O'Toole], about six months before he died. I had about 20 minutes with the great man.

"We drank hot port and lemon and had a couple of photographs of us together, arm in arm. I helped him down the stairs and he stood behind the bar and said to me: 'Christ, do you realise, I’ve never been behind the bar at the Coach?'

"I don’t know why I was so surprised – but he was always the other side. He said he must come back, then I helped him to his driver, and obviously, he never made it back."

The news comes after the Coach was granted a rare nudist license, with locals pledging to strip off to save the pub through the release of a charity calendar.

Those who want to be involved with the party, including bands wishing to play, should contact hollie@coachsoho.co.uk

The 50 best pubs in London

1/50

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in