Last month legendary London rock and metal bar Crobar announced that it would be unable to reopen at its Soho location. On their social media s the bar posted: “If the insurance companies had paid out, we could have paid the rent and the staff’s wages and survived. If the landlords had given us a rent discount or holiday, we could have survived. Sadly, our idiot government did not make either of them do what’s right, and now the bar and music industries are in tatters.”
The bar, which opened in 2001, was much loved by the rock and metal community and was also a firm favourite of musical legends who often stopped by for drinks when they played shows in London. I went past the site a couple of weeks ago and it was genuinely heartbreaking to see the bar boarded up forever. I couldn’t even get a good final photo of the place as it was surrounded by a building for some new soul-less development.
But the Crobar crew won’t give up that easily. Bar owner Richard Thomas is aiming to open a new bar in central London towards the end of 2021 and has set up a Crowdfunder campaign with the aim to raise £95,000 towards securing and kitting out the new premises.
“This time the plan is to find a premises that can accommodate a better shaped bar, a separate live music venue, and more than 3 toilets!”
By donating to the Crowdfunder you not only get to resurrect a piece of London’s rock ‘n’ roll history, but you also get the chance to win some cool Crobar stuff including a limited edition “Crofunder” t-shirt. They will also be putting the names of all the Crofunder ers on a wall in the new bar.
The campaign has raised almost £10,000 since it was announced yesterday, and if the success of their recent raffle is anything to go by (which raised over £22,000 for the Crobar staff) then they should hopefully reach their target. The bar was frequented by many famous faces over the years (including Dave Grohl, Slash, Alice Cooper and Steel Panther) so hopefully the project will get a lot of and they will be able to reach their target.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Rockers and Headbangers, you are amazing! Almost 10 grand in less than 24 hours. Thank you so much. That’s one new toilet paid for.”
Whilst Crobar is on hiatus you can still buy merch from their online store.
