The London Tavern

A respected London pub operator found himself at the centre of a deeply entangled commercial dispute. What began as a joint venture to redevelop a historic public house into a thriving gastro pub and luxury residence project had collapsed due to poor contract drafting, planning failures, and breakdowns in stakeholder trust.

Two secured lenders had appointed separate receivers, the pub’s leasehold was under threat, a professional negligence claim against a solicitor was in motion, and regulatory barriers halted residential sales due to inadequate soundproofing. The pub’s viability was under immediate threat, and the client faced an imminent bank meeting with no credibility and no clear path forward.

BM&T was engaged at the point of critical distress, acting swiftly to restore structure, protect remaining value and negotiate a pragmatic resolution. Our approach focused on four levers of influence:

• Business viability: We validated the ongoing profitability of the operating pub business, run under a peppercorn sublease, making clear it was operationally viable and legally ring-fenced.
• Legal credibility: We brought in experienced legal support to defend against aggressive creditor threats and confirm the enforceability of the sublease, protecting the client’s trading position.
• Strategic leverage: We commissioned evening sound testing to prove the risk of noise abatement, blocking residential sales until a compromise could be brokered.
• Structured negotiation: We facilitated a multi-party settlement involving the receivers, a new investor, planning authorities and the client, unlocking value for all parties and enabling the client to retain his core business.

We also structured the settlement of a professional indemnity insurance claim, ensuring funds were recoverable by the client and the trading business, not lost to JB Ltd’s eventual insolvency.

• The client retained the operational pub business with improved kitchen space, sustainable profit margins, and new lease terms aligned with long-term viability.
• A new investor stepped in, resolved the planning objections and upgraded the soundproofing, enabling residential sales and releasing capital back to stakeholders.
• JB Ltd (the leaseholder vehicle) was placed into liquidation in a controlled manner, minimising disruption and shielding the viable trading business.
• A professional negligence settlement was achieved, allowing the client to settle conditional fee arrangements and reinvest in future-proofing the pub.

This was a high-stakes, multi-party situation in which BM&T’s credibility, lateral thinking and commercial tenacity preserved an operating business, unlocked a stalled real-estate transaction, and avoided premature insolvency proceedings that would have destroyed value for all parties.