Historic pub in Yorkshire has been thrown a lifeline thanks to local support

The Jubilee, in Balfour Street, near Leeman Road in York, originally opened in 1897 and was named for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee, but it has stood empty and boarded up since 2016.

Now thanks to continued support from the local community the pub has been thrown a life-line which could see it saved.

The Jubilee has recently been able to renew the ‘Asset of Community Value’ status - which means the public house now has a six month period to raise money to buy back the building should it come on the market.

It is a major step forward given that Wakefield based developer Tri-Core, which owns the building, has signalled that it might be willing to sell the building to the Friends.

Tri-Core has applied several times for permission to convert all or part of the building into flats. Its latest application was rejected earlier this year.

Last month, Tri-Core director Dominic Woodward confirmed that he had subsequently invited the Friends of the Jubilee to make an offer.

But he warned that if a sale could not be agreed, he would appeal against the latest planning refusal. “We feel we have a strong argument,” he said.

Five years ago locals teamed up with pub campaigners from the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), and the pub was listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) before being put back on the market. It was then bought by Tri-Core from Enterprise Inns in the summer of 2016.

Previously the pub was sold subject to contract in February and was intended to be reopened and run as a pub. However, the sale collapsed, and following a change of estate agency, the pub is back on the market again, with a minimum guide price of £230,000.

The organisation named Friends of The Jubilee have hailed the council’s decision to renew the pub’s ACV status, which was set to expire next month, as ‘the latest sign of progress in ...efforts to take over the building as a community enterprise’.

The Friends want to buy the building, then re-open it as a pub and multi-purpose space owned and used by local residents.

Coun Kallum Taylor, a ward leader for Holgate for York City Council, said: “The council’s support will no doubt be a welcome boost to the brilliant work being put in by residents to try and make a success of the building for the community.”

The pub was originally designed by Walter Brierley in 1897 for the Tadcaster Tower Brewery.

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