Locals will be able to buy shares in The Trafalgar from next week as campaigners launch a bid to secure the pub’s future
A battle to save a Wimbledon pub from closure looks to have become a glass half full situation with the local community hoping to collectively own it by Christmas.
The diminutive pub has become a firm favourite among local residents, beer enthusiasts and AFC Wimbledon fans, thanks to its convivial atmosphere and historic charm. So beloved is it that some have even dubbed it the “community’s living room”.
Now, after facing off an existential threat in the form of a redevelopment battle, locals will have the chance to buy shares in The Trafalgar, with the hope of bringing the pub into full community ownership by Christmas Day.
“When this opens up you will have this nice cosy part of history you can own a piece of…and it’s got pints,” said Oli Carter-Esdale, barman at The Trafalgar in South Wimbledon.
The Save the Traf campaign will launch its community share offer next week, giving members of the public the chance to invest in the pub and help raise £250,000 towards the purchase of the freehold. Rebecca Coleman, a local resident and member of the Save the Traf campaign, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) what this development means for the pub.
“We were really relieved,” she told the LDRS in reference to the freeholder’s decision to give locals the chance to buy the pub rather than sell it to a developer. “It was really lovely to finally say we have an option to buy the pub.”
“It has been a very busy two weeks though,” she added. “There was a time when we thought we were going to tell everyone we couldn’t do it.”
The LDRS previously reported how the pub fought off redevelopment plans that would have seen the site, parts of which date back 150 years, demolished. Save the Traf first floated the idea of a Community Benefit Society model (CBS) at the start of the summer, but at the time, campaigners were uncertain whether the current freeholder Adenbuild would give them the opportunity to buy the pub.
Following months of “back and forth” and what campaigners described as “boring legal agreements”, Adenbuild has now agreed to give the community a protected period in which to purchase The Traf’s freehold, alongside Oli’s existing lease.
With this major hurdle cleared, Save the Traf is now putting all its efforts into raising funds to buy the freehold ahead of its initial Christmas Eve deadline. If completed, the CBS would aim to raise around half of the money needed to secure the freehold.
The pub would then have to rely on private donors and potential grant funding through Merton Council to make up the remaining shortfall of the £500,000-plus required.
Despite acknowledging the scale of the fundraising challenge ahead, Save the Traf remain confident that their approach is the right one.
“This is the right way to do it but you need a strong community to do it,” Rebecca said. A CBS gives members an equal say in decisions about the pub and ensures that money made at the bar is reinvested to keep it running for generations.
From September 9 until November 17, members of the public will be able to purchase shares ranging from £250 to £50,000. Members will receive discounts at the bar and a birthday pint, while Oli said he is exploring ways to recognise investors on a “wall of honour” inside the pub.
The group said it is also trying to keep the shares affordable, recognising that South Wimbledon is one of the more deprived parts of Merton.
“We are trying to get people to see this as a social investment,” Oli told the LDRS.
The Trafalgar’s red-brick corner plot is one of the area’s oldest surviving buildings. It stands opposite a modern school campus and is surrounded by the towering High Path Estate, which is itself undergoing extensive redevelopment by Clarion Housing.
“Almost everything will change around here soon,” Oli told the LDRS. “This pub can’t be replaced.”
“You can’t replace an ancient woodland simply by planting some new trees,” added fellow Save the Traf member Andrew Harding, who was sitting alongside his dog, Scooby.
The group has looked to other successful community-run pubs across the capital for inspiration. Oli hopes The Trafalgar can join Tottenham’s Antwerp Arms and Charlton’s White Swan as another successful example of the CBS model.
“So much time has gone into this, but the best thing is that in doing this the community has grown, and friendships have been formed,” Oli said. The pub already has a reputation for bringing people together, with some regulars even having met their future partners at the bar.
Now, the group hopes the CBS offer will strengthen those community ties even further. An early survey suggests around 200 people are interested in joining the CBS, with many more expected to come forward following next week’s public launch meeting at St John the Divine church on September 9.
More information can be found on the Save the Traf website.
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