Kingsland Road craft beer boozer The Fox in shock closure

Regulars have said goodbye to Kingsland Road’s craft beer boozer The Fox after its shock closure last week.

Management of the popular haunt announced last week they had been given one week’s notice of the freeholder’s intentions to renovate and refurbish the building and turn the upstairs into flats.

That means the it will be shut for at least a year, and up to 18 months, although no planning applications have been submitted yet to Hackney Council for the development.

The pub said: “We’ve fought as hard as we could and we’ve exhausted all angles to avoid this but alas there is no other way about it but the pub will be back.

“We’re sorry we couldn’t have given you more notice (we received our notice last Saturday). It’s been an awesome six-and-a-half years and we’re glad to have helped out this whole craft beer thing along the way.”

The closure comes months after nearby Duke’s Brew and Que closed. The two boozers were seen as leading venues for the craft beer revolution in Hackney. Duke’s was where Beavertown brewery began before moving to Tottenham Hale via Hackney Wick. It has now been given a £40million minority investment from Heineken to expand.

James Watson of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) told the Gazette of the importance of keeping the Victorian pub buildings in London and said the owners had “put the cart before the horse” by closing it before having permission for the conversion, especially as Sadiq Khan had urged boroughs to protect pubs in his new London Plan.

“It would be a tragedy if we lose all of our historic pubs because of property developer greed,” he said. “These pubs were purposely built with cellars and staff accommodation upstairs.

“One of the things in the London Plan is that they don’t want to see the erosion of pubs through these methods.”