A Wandsworth pub tops a new ranking of London’s most at-risk pubs, with eight venues across the borough facing steep tax increases when government support ends this April.
The Spread Eagle on Wandsworth High Street ranks first among London pubs on IsMyPubFucked.com, a campaign site that uses official government data to calculate how business rates will change when the current 75% relief is abolished.
Closer to home for Putney readers, the Bricklayers Arms on Upper Richmond Road, Putney’s oldest pub, ranks 78th. The community favourite faces its rateable value rising from £15,500 to £40,500, an increase of 161%.
The data the website uses is legitimate: Valuation Office Agency figures that show how individual pubs will be affected by the combined impact of new property valuations and the removal of hospitality relief.
How the system works
Pubs pay business rates based on their “rateable value”, an estimate of what the property could rent for on the open market. The Valuation Office Agency reassessed every commercial property in England for the new rating list taking effect in April 2026.
The problem for pubs is timing. The VOA’s new valuations are based on rental values as of April 2024, when many venues had recovered strongly from COVID. But the previous valuations, still in use, were based on April 2021, when pubs were either closed or severely restricted by pandemic measures.
The result is that pubs are being valued at their lowest point for the outgoing list and their recovered state for the incoming one.
On top of this, the 75% business rates relief that has supported hospitality since the pandemic will be abolished entirely from April 2026. Pubs have received some form of rates relief continuously since March 2020, initially at 100% before tapering to the current 75%.
The Wandsworth picture
Eight Wandsworth borough pubs appear in London’s top 100 most at risk:
- Spread Eagle, Wandsworth High Street (ranked 1st in London)
- Eagle, Battersea (50th)
- Wheatsheaf, Tooting (51st)
- Selkirk, Tooting (75th)
- Bricklayers Arms, Putney (78th)
- Gardeners Arms, Earlsfield (80th)
- Horse and Groom, Wandsworth (89th)
- JJ Moon’s, Tooting (91st)
The Spread Eagle’s position at the top of the London list requires context. Its rateable value is increasing from £16,750 to £121,000, a rise of 622%. However, this reflects a fundamental change in the business rather than simply pandemic recovery.
The pub closed as a hotel in the 1920s and operated as a pub only for decades. In 2022, it was “sensitively renovated” and reopened with 21 boutique hotel rooms alongside the pub. The April 2021 valuation captured a pub-only operation during COVID restrictions. The April 2024 valuation captures a thriving pub and hotel.
This makes the Spread Eagle a poor example of the “recovery penalty” that campaigners highlight. The Bricklayers Arms in Putney tells that story more clearly.
Putney’s oldest pub
The Bricklayers Arms, founded in 1826 as the Waterman’s Arms serving local shipbuilders, nearly closed permanently during the pandemic. In 2020, it was described as “half construction site” and heading for closure.
Chris Walsh took over in July 2020, operating from a table outside during lockdowns while he and his family worked to restore the Grade II listed building. A crowdfunding campaign in 2021 raised £13,753 from 289 local supporters.
“The pub has been through a lot in its 200-year history, but nothing has been as challenging as COVID-19,” Walsh wrote on the crowdfunding page. “We feel extremely passionate about keeping independent, traditional pubs alive.”
The pub reopened properly in May 2021, weeks after the April 2021 valuation date that set its current low rateable value. It has since thrived, earning recognition on CAMRA’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors for its preserved 1928 features.
Now that success is being used to calculate a tax bill nearly three times higher than before.
The Bricklayers Arms is not the only Putney pub facing serious pressure. The Telegraph Arms on Telegraph Road also falls into the site’s “Fu*cked” category with a 133% rateable value increase. A third, the Green Man on Putney Heath, is rated “Struggling” with a 57% rise. Three more Putney pubs face smaller increases: the Half Moon (+41%), Coat and Badge (+17%), and Jolly Gardener (+13%).
What happens next
Transitional relief will cap how quickly bills can rise year on year, preventing the full increase hitting immediately. But the trajectory is clear: pubs that recovered from the pandemic will pay significantly more, while the support that helped them survive is removed entirely.
UK Hospitality estimates the average pub will pay £4,500 more in business rates by 2027/28 and £7,000 more by 2028/29.
More than 2,250 pubs closed between 2019 and 2024, with 16,000 licensed premises lost since March 2020. Energy costs rose 70-80%, food prices peaked at 22% inflation, wages increased over 20%, and alcohol duty rose 10.1%, all while rates relief was the one consistent support.
The Bricklayers Arms survived COVID with community support. Whether it can survive the tax system rewarding that recovery remains to be seen.
Bricklayers arms is on Waterman Street, just off the lower Richmond Road.
Not to mention the utterly shameful way the White Lion (right there at the ‘gateway to Putney ‘ as you cross the bridge) has been neglected!