19 December 2023 , 14:28
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A “heartbroken” couple who successfully crowdfunded over £45,000 from their local community to re-open the area’s last local pub have said they may have to give it all back after claiming the property developer who owned it “reneged” on their deal.
Nearly 900 music lovers and pub-goers chipped in tens of thousands to help Sunny Paradisos and Tara Clerkin reopen the Rhubarb Tavern, the last remaining pub in Bristol’s most deprived area, Barton Hill. They smashed their funding target but celebrations turned to anger when the couple on the Crowdfunder platform on Sunday (December 10) saying the building’s owner had changed her mind. The owner, however, disputes the couple's interpretation of their agreement.
The pub was bought by London-based property developer Mona Mogharebi in 2014 and had sat empty since 2018 until local musicians and aspiring publicans Sunny and Tara launched their campaign to re-open it as a gig venue and not-for-profit community space. Despite being a working pub for over 160 years the Rhubarb has remained closed under the stewardship of the developer, who is currently applying for planning permission to have eight flats built above the pub and in the beer garden.
The Rhubarb Tavern had been a thriving pub for 160 years before it was purchased by a property developer in 2014 (John Myers)The couple's understanding on plans for the pub appears to be backed up In an email, seen by MirrorOnline, where they agreed with Ms Mogharebi that if they were able to raise enough money to pay for some internal repairs and a deposit, she would repair structural damage and lease it to them for 10 years, along with the upper floors of the pub building. However Tara said that when she contacted Ms Mogharebi to say they had successfully raised the money, things changed.
“Mona told us she had been quoted £500,000 for her part of the building work, and she wouldn’t be able to rent it to us as previously agreed,” Tara told MirrorOnline. “We did this in good faith, we had an agreement from her in writing - we weren’t able to sign a lease or anything until we had the money raised, so we trusted her to keep her word while we got the funds together.”
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Sunny and Tara said they are exploring all their options in the light of the new situation, but that they have been left “gutted” by what they regard as Ms Mogharebi’s change of heart. “We are just so grateful to everyone who has helped out, everyone who chipped in to the crowdfunder, who came to the fundraising events. It has been such a huge amount of work and the response from the community has been so amazing,” said Sunny.
The campaign saw fundraising events, gigs and raffles across the area (John Myers)“We were so delighted when we hit the target. We really thought the hard part was over, to have it ripped away like this has honestly just been heartbreaking,” he added. “We’ll do everything we can, exhaust every option to try and make this happen, we aren’t giving up yet. But if the worst does happen, we’ll make sure everyone who donated to the crowdfunder gets reimbursed.”
In the statement on Sunday the couple said: “the owner has informed us that they may be intending to renege on part of our agreement on the terms of the tenancy” and said the trouble concerned the developer’s plans to build flats in the pub’s beer garden along with an "unwillingness" to carry out repairs to the building's upper floors. The couple stated: “We were prepared to take on this project if the development went ahead in the garden, although it would be a less than ideal arrangement and would deny Barton Hill of one of very few remaining green spaces, but if the upstairs floors were developed into flats then our vision for The Rhubarb would be entirely unviable.”
When asked to comment Mona Mogharebi told Mirror Online Sunny and Tara’s statement contained “inaccuracies”. She accepted that she had indeed agreed to an offer from the couple in February 2021, then she made an amended offer on 6 August 2023 - which they turned down. The Mirror Online has seen an email from Mona to Sunny and Tara on Aug 21 agreeing to “go back to our previous agreed terms”. However in her statement Ms Mogharebi asserted: “From Feb 2021 to Oct 2023, no definitive terms were firmly agreed upon." She added: “at best our interactions involved loose negotiations” and said any claims she planned to renege on the deal were therefore “inaccurate”.
Ms Mogharebi blamed a “surprising quote” of “nearly £500,000” in late October to fix damage after squatters twice broke in. The size of the quote was down to “the extensive scope of the required work and the escalated costs of building materials,” she claimed, as well as her insurer’s refusal to pay out. “I promptly conveyed the disheartening news to Tara, stating that without consent for rear development, I could not proceed with the repairs and leasing the property to them, as previously discussed, as it would be tantamount to commercial suicide,” she said.
The pub's future now rests in the hands of the local planning authority who are due to rule on the proposed development in the new year.