Landlady calls time on Royal Mile's oldest pub after 30yrs

Published on Friday 18 June 2010 10:10

IT IS one of the last old-boozers on the Royal Mile, where the same friendly faces behind the bar have been welcoming regulars for nearly 30 years.

Now the familiar feel of the White Horse is about to disappear after landlady Kath Will, 62, quit, blaming the owners Punch Taverns for soaring rent and beer prices. The pub chain has ordered a renovation in the wake of their departure, with regulars fearing that will spell its end as a "working man's pub".

Mrs Will and her husband Rab, 61, decided they could no longer afford to run the pub, after running up losses following increases in costs.

"Our regulars are absolutely devastated, they don't know where they are going to go or what they are going to do," she said. "They were used to the old tradition and I don't think the pub is going to be a working man's pub now."

Ellen Lindsay, 68, from Prestonfield, who has been going to the White Horse with husband James, 70, for more than 30 years, agreed. "I'm devastated and most of the regulars are disappointed. It was a family-oriented pub and you just knew everyone. You could go in there and you were safe, nobody bothered you," she said.

"I don't know if I will go back when it reopens because if it is going to be like a cafe/bar – and we are just surmising that is what it's going to be – I have been in cafe/bar types before and there is no atmosphere in them, whereas down in the traditional pubs there is always somebody willing to talk to you."

The pub – the oldest on the Royal Mile, established in 1742 – suffered a drop in trade after the introduction of the smoking ban in 2005.

The nail in the coffin financially came when thieves broke in earlier this year and stole hundreds of pounds worth of stock, around 600 in takings and almost 500 from a cancer charity collection, losses which were not fully covered by insurance.

Mrs Wills, who was born in the Canongate, like her mother, said the biggest problem was higher charges from the owners.

"Punch Taverns was putting the rent up and the price of beer, which we had to buy from them. The prices were extortionate and we were just getting ourselves deeper into debt," she said.

"The pub really did need refurbished but we didn't have the money to do it and Punch Taverns wouldn't help us with the cost of refurbishing.

"They just wanted us out to upgrade it to their standards, and they knew we couldn't afford to do it."

The White Horse Bar is now undergoing a makeover after being taken over by new licensees and is expected to reopen on 30 June.

A Punch Taverns spokeswoman said it was never in the company's interests to see its licensees fail and that it would never deliberately price out a tenant.

She added: "We are focusing on a great future for the White Horse in Canongate. Our previous licensees, who we sincerely thank for operating the business for 30 years, took a decision not to renew their lease when it ended recently."