Pub up for grabs as landlord looks to move on after 40 years

A pub in New Addington is available for just £32,000 a year.

The Man on the Moon pub in Headley Drive is available to lease from Wellington Pub Company.

The pub is being marketed by estate agents Sidney Phillips and has been up for lease for 10 years, according to the current landlord.

Joe Stone has run the pub for the past 40 years and at 69-years-old is ready to hand over the reigns to someone else.

He said: “It is a nice place for the locals, everybody that drinks in here is local.

“It is a good community, the pub gives the community somewhere to go.”

While he’s ready to leave the pub Mr Stone says he won’t leave until a new landlord is found.

He has lived in New Addington for 50 years and thinks the pub is an important place on the estate.

The landlord said: “I will keep it going, the community needs a watering hole that is a pub.

“You need someone with experience to take it on, it has been good to be me, 100 per cent.

“I would object if it became something else like a food shop, there is enough takeaways and shops on this estate.”

This is what happened to The Cunningham pub in New Addington which was knocked down in 2005 and replaced with a Lidl supermarket.

The community pub is based in a two-storey building with a front bar with space for 20 people seated and a back bar and function room which has capacity for 60 people and includes a dance floor.

It is a ‘wet led’ pub meaning it just serves drinks and has a licence to open from 11am-11pm, Monday to Saturday  and 11am10.30pm on Sundays.

The listing said: “It is in our opinion that a new operator could increase turnover with the introduction of a ‘pub grub’ menu.”

Upstairs there is three bedroom flat for the owners which includes a living room, kitchen-dining room and shower room.