The Talbot's new management talks

Lest it should get lost amongst all the excitable talk about the World Trade Organisation, we thought we'd reproduce James Heaton's latest comments about plans for The Talbot pub, one of the biggest stories we've been following since the early days of this site.

Here's what James said in an earlier thread about his plans for the pub and his discussions with owners Punch Taverns:

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your comments and to those of you who have emailed me directly. Picking up on a few things here...

Yes it will run 'as is' through the summer.

I will have an idea of dates for works in due course.

The name will be staying and those of you who have been to the mailing list signup page have indeed seen the first preview of the new branding.

The interior will pretty much be 'gutted', although due to the nature in which the buildings have been knocked together, the configuration will stay more-or-less the same.

TVs and fruit machines will by and large disappear. We may keep one screen or a projector just for the purposes of big internationals etc, but we will no longer have Sky Sports and the TV will be on occasionally, not as a rolling backdrop.

To be honest, although we all like to go to the pub to watch the football, TVs don't really work as a full-time fixture in the sort of place we're planning to turn The Talbot into. I hope no one will be too disappointed about this.

I have signed another bit of paper with Punch this morning authorising our solicitors to proceed with the initial arrangements. We expect to be in control of the site, as exists, from 28th March.

I will be giving more details about the longer term plans to brockleynick as soon as the interim tenancy agreement is signed.

Thanks and best wishes, James Heaton.

We're extremely grateful to James for taking the time to talk to Brockley Central readers about his plans and for being so receptive to the comments that appeared in response. It's a very encouraging sign that so many of Brockley's leading businesses are engaging with their customers in this way.