Landlord of Manchester’s Lass O’Gowrie “forced out”

The landlord of an award-winning Manchester comedy venue is to leave this weekend due to “below-average” takings.

The Lass O’Gowrie, located on Charles Street in Manchester city centre, has won several awards from CAMRA, Magners UK Pub Comedy, and was voted Best Pub in Britain in 2012 in the Great British Pub Awards.

Gareth Kavanagh, who has been at the Lass O’Gowrie for nine years, said the pub’s owners, Greene King, have forced him to hand back the leasehold only months after agreeing a reduction in rent when his turnover dropped by 40 per cent after the BBC relocated to MediaCityUK in Salford and other local businesses closed down.

The venue hosted the “Jokein” and “Wet Feet” Open Mic nights, staged fringe theatre in its 30-seater Salmon Theatre, including live performances of ‘cult TV’ scripts, and is a founder member of the Greater Manchester Fringe.

Kavanagh claimed he was forced to quit when brewery executives demanded that thousands of pounds worth of renovation take place.

He added: “If you really want to hurt a little business then the time to do it is just when we’re at the end of a two-year rent battle, have no profit in the business, and you say, ‘by the way, we’re now going to demand £40,000 of work to be done in the pub.’”

While Greene King are acting in line with the terms of the lease, they have been “cold and brutal and hard”, Kavanagh says, while adding on Twitter that “pubcos” should be regulated to help independent pubs.

The pub, which has attracted names such as The Boy with Tape on his Face, Ian Cognito and Chris Lynam, will reopen in “a few weeks” following a refurbishment.

A Greene King spokesperson said: “The pub will re-open in a few weeks once it has been refurbished, with an even stronger focus on real ale and a wider selection of locally-brewed cask ales alongside our own ales.”