Popular pub remains closed and up for sale while sister pubs reopen

Fifteen staff members at Fitzgeralds on Green Terrace were told on March 5 that their workplace was on the market.

The popular pub is up for sale at £695,000, with Leeds-based property specialists Fleurets.

Staff are currently on furlough, though the Government scheme is set to end in October.

Fitzgeralds, a traditional pub, closed a few days before lockdown came into force on March 23 and has not reopened since. The pub is one of 17 across the North East owned by Sir John Fitzgerald Ltd.

Eleven bars in the chain are open Wednesday to Sunday. Two pubs in the centre of Newcastle reopened on July 30, but closed again on August 8 as trade did not recover in that time.

Fitzgeralds is one of four pubs belonging to the company which have not opened at all since March, and the only one of the 17 up for sale. It is also the only venue in Sunderland.

It has three-bedroom private accommodation upstairs, and £18,000 annual rental income from a business working in another part of the building.

The watering hole was named as Sunderland and South Tyneside’s CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) Pub of the Year in 2012 and is listed in the 2020 CAMRA Good Beer Guide; the 26th consecutive year it has appeared in the book.

It had previously been Greensleeves, changing to Fitzgeralds in 1994 when it expanded by buying the property next door.

Chair of Sunderland and South Tyneside branch of CAMRA, Michael Wynne, said: “It’s quite worrying. I would have thought with all the space they have, there would have been room for them to do something.

“I was quite alarmed when I heard it was up for sale. I would be upset if it was to go. For CAMRA, Fitzgeralds have always been one of the good guys.”

Sir John Fitzgerald Ltd have been contacted by the Echo, but declined to comment.

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