The Bailey listed as a Community Asset

In March 2015, the BaileyN7 Supporters applied to Islington Council to have the Bailey, formerly known as The Castle, listed as an Asset of Community Value. We succeeded, and the pub was listed at the end of May. Here is the text from our application:

"The Bailey was a fantastic pub and could be again. It has only recently closed, but has huge potential to remain a pub and should do so. It has a great location, in that it’s the first pub you come to if you walk down Holloway Road from Highbury and Islington station, so there is plenty of footfall from people on their way home from work or from shops in either direction. The pub is clearly still viable as a pub – it would get packed on Arsenal match days, and the former leaseholder advised that the pub would take between £5000 and £8000 on those days, which is about £150k pa just for home match days alone. Islington is renowned for its gastropubs, so with the introduction of a good food offering, the future should be fantastic for this pub. Furthermore, the craft beer and real ale industry in recent years has enjoyed a massive resurgence which has been well documented, especially in London where 30 new breweries were opened in 2014 alone, and companies like the Craft Beer company are expanding fast. People are genuinely coming back to pubs in their numbers, and beer sales actually rose 1.4% in 2014.... the Bailey should continue to contribute to the recovery in this sector of the economy. It’s also important to point out here that property developers in recent years have been profiting by buying pub buildings, closing the business, then letting out the ground floor on a new lease, often to big chains, whilst selling the upper parts off as luxury flats on long leases. This is what happened to the old Kings Head on Holloway Road a few years ago - http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/historic_holloway_pub_taken_over_by_coffee_shop_chain_1_789343 Our conviction is that the Bailey is a historical local meeting place, and that the whole building is viable as a pub, just as the Hen and Chickens on Highbury Corner and the Camden Head on Camden Passage are with their upstairs comedy venues, and just as the Kings Head and Hope and Anchor on Upper Street are with their upstairs theatre venues. Not to mention the 3 floor bar operation at Phibbers just off the Holloway Road, or the 2 floor bar operation at the Angelic on Liverpool Road. Above all, the Bailey is by its nature an asset of community value – it’s a public house…. by its very definition a place where members of the local community can come together, meet new people, socialise, have fun, and mix with their neighbours. Pubs are part of the very fabric of our communities, and in this age of technology, it’s vital that we continue to be able to make those personal connections in places like the Bailey. And the Bailey itself was a brilliant pub. Jackie, who worked there for 7 years, and lost her job when the new owners bought it put it well….She said it was “like a family. All sorts of people from different backgrounds, students, office workers, and of course football fans, but there was never any trouble.” The pub would show all the football matches on the large screen, and there was a large core of regulars who would get together to watch on the weekends and in the evenings. In the past there was a very popular quiz night on a Monday, which would of course mean meeting friends and forming a regular team. The pub also had a pool table which was popular, and there was even a pool team in the past. And it goes without saying that there must be scores if not hundreds of upset Arsenal fans who used to enjoy meeting their friends here before and after the match. Last but not least it’s worth pointing out that the Bailey is in the St Mary Magdalane conservation area CA06 and the council’s design guidelines state that “The Council recognises that often the best use for a building is that which it was designed for and will seek to retain public houses, shops and workshops in appropriate uses which will not diminish their special interest.” So, in summary, please list this pub as an asset of community value, it has huge potential to be a popular social hub, and a place of social wellbeing for the community for another 150 years. Thank you"