A campaign to save The Trafalgar pub in South Wimbledon from closure has moved a step closer to success, with locals now able to buy shares in the business from next week. The Save the Traf group hopes to raise £250,000 towards the purchase of the freehold, with a target of completing the community buyout by Christmas Eve.
The pub, parts of which date back 150 years, has been a firm favourite among residents, beer enthusiasts and AFC Wimbledon fans. Some regulars have dubbed it the “community’s living room”. The campaign follows a redevelopment battle that threatened to demolish the site.
Community share offer opens
From September 9 until November 17, members of the public can purchase shares ranging from £250 to £50,000. Investors will receive discounts at the bar and a birthday pint, while barman Oli Carter-Esdale said he is exploring ways to recognise investors on a “wall of honour” inside the pub.
“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 Carter-Esdale, who has worked at The Trafalgar for three years.
The Save the Traf campaign will launch its community share offer next week, with a public meeting scheduled at St John the Divine church on September 9. An early survey suggests around 200 people are interested in joining the Community Benefit Society (CBS), with many more expected to come forward.
Freeholder agreement secured
The campaign follows months of “back and forth” and what campaigners described as “boring legal agreements” with the current freeholder, Adenbuild. The company has now agreed to give the community a protected period in which to purchase the freehold, alongside Carter-Esdale’s existing lease.
Rebecca Coleman, a local resident and member of Save the Traf, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “We were really relieved. It was really lovely to finally say we have an option to buy the pub.” She added: “It has been a very busy two weeks though. 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 demolished. Save the Traf first floated the idea of a CBS at the start of the summer, but at the time, campaigners were uncertain whether Adenbuild would give them the opportunity to buy.
Fundraising challenges ahead
If completed, the CBS would aim to raise around half of the money needed to secure the freehold, which is estimated at £500,000-plus. The pub would then have to rely on private donors and potential grant funding through Merton Council to make up the remaining shortfall.
“This is the right way to do it but you need a strong community to do it,” Coleman 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.
The group 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,” Carter-Esdale told the LDRS.
Community spirit and inspiration
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,” Carter-Esdale said. “This pub can’t be replaced.” Fellow Save the Traf member Andrew Harding, sitting alongside his dog Scooby, added: “You can’t replace an ancient woodland simply by planting some new trees.”
The group has looked to other successful community-run pubs across the capital for inspiration. Carter-Esdale 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,” he said.
The pub already has a reputation for bringing people together, with some regulars having met their future partners at the bar. The group hopes the CBS offer will strengthen those community ties even further, with the initial deadline for the purchase set for Christmas Eve.
