McMullen brewery says two Barnet pub closures are only a “temporary measure” and that the premises should re-open by the spring

Regular customers at The Queens Arms, Barnet, have been fearing the worst with the doors remaining locked and no sign of life inside. However, they have been assured that the closure — and also the closure of the Kings Head in Barnet High Street — are both only temporary.

Hertford brewers McMullen and Sons say they have recruited a  new tenants for the Kings Head but are still in the process of lining up a new tenant for the Queens Arms.

The Kings Head has been closed since September. McMullens told the Barnet Society the company hopes to re-open the pub by late spring or early summer.

Several potential tenants have expressed an interest in taking on the Queens Arms and the aim is to have it re-opened at the latest by the spring.

The Queens Arms, with the Everyman cinema on one side and a BP petrol station on the other, is mid-way between the Northern Line and the Great North Road.

There has been speculation on social media that this large site, which includes a car park, might be sold off for redevelopment as flats.

But McMullens stressed that the closure was only temporary.

Local concern about the future of the Queens Arms has been heightened by the grim statistics about the difficulties facing the licensed trade with reports from across the country of an average of 34 pubs closing every month.

Another McMullen pub just a few hundred yards away, The Old Red Lion at the bottom of Barnet Hill, was closed in 2015 and replaced with a group of town houses.

East Barnet village has been without a pub for almost a year since the Stonegate group closed the Prince of Wales – but locals have been encouraged to see that work has started on refurbishing the premises.

The prospect of losing the last pub in the village was such a blow, that campaigners succeeded in registering The Prince of Wales as an asset of community value – only to find that there was a last-minute reprieve. 

Stonegate Group finally confirmed that the pub had been to the sold to another pub company, Heartwood Collection, a hospitality group which runs upmarket inns and restaurants across southern England.

Heartwood have promised a “multi-million-pound refurbishment” with the bar and dining room enhanced to provide a combined capacity of 150 covers. In the rear garden there would be a terrace for up to 55 covers.