Young's faces fresh live music battle over Bull & Gate in Kentish Town

The pub operator has bought the freehold of the famous north London music venue for an undisclosed sum off a guide price of £2.7m.

The company plans to reopen the pub in the summer with a food offer, although there will be no live music.

A spokesperson for Young’s said: “We don’t feel that having a live music offering at the Bull & Gate alongside our plans to serve food is viable.

“If we felt that maintaining the pub’s live music element on a stand-alone basis made commercial sense then we would look to do so, but the reality is that, in the current economic environment, independent music venues have struggled.”

Young’s-owned Geronimo pub the Half Moon, in Putney, was saved as a live music venue in 2009, following a lengthy campaign, and the Musicians Union (MU) is now in talks with Young’s about the Bull & Gate.

MU general secretary John Smith said: “It is a real shame that the Bull & Gate looks to be abandoning live music at a time when live music in general is flourishing.”

Live music campaigner Hamish Birchall added: “It is disappointing. I would hope that they’d reconsider and that there will be some sort of campaign to keep the music offering.

“The venue has been there for 30 or 40 years, so this is quite a shock.”