Pub with “unprecedented level of support” finds new home after being threatened with closure

More than 2,300 people backed an application​ to have live music venue the Owl Sanctuary listed as an asset of community value after it was sold to a new owner.

Licensee Dan Hawcroft announced on Facebook that he had found a new venue with the same capacity on the city’s Timber Hill.

“At the end of the day, 25 Cattle Market Street was our home and it meant a lot to us, but it’s only bricks and mortar,” he said.

“The Owl Sanctuary is and always will be the people inside those bricks, the bands playing the shows, the people at the gigs, at the bar, donating soup and the ethos and ethics they carry with them - and that cannot be destroyed.

“When we set out on building the Owl, we had no clue if people would understand or grasp what we were trying to achieve. Over the past few weeks it has been shown that people not only grasped it, but supported it more than we could have ever imagined.”

Hawcroft added that he was aiming to open the new venue by Friday 19 February.

Local CAMRA pub protection officer Neil Bowers said: “The Norwich & Norfolk CAMRA branch would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who nominated The Owl Sanctuary (2,500). It took the branch by surprise at just how loved the pub was.

"That is still is an unprecedented number both locally and nationally. There has been a pub there since 1845 and to see this possibly get demolished would have been a travesty.”

Almost £7,000 has been raised by local music lovers to help support the pub, which it said would be donated to charity.

“All shows currently booked after we reopen will be going ahead as planned in the new Owl Sanctuary and this would not have been possible without the crowdfunding page,”​ said Hawcroft.

“This will pay not only for the deposit on the new building, but also our staff wages while we are closed, with any left going to the mental health charity MIND.”