UPDATED A petition has been launched to “save” Southfields’ beloved Park Tavern after its current managers warned locals they had been told to move out next month.
The campaign, started by local councillor Jasmin Glynne says the pub’s freeholder, Star Pubs & Bars, part of Heineken UK, has “threatened possession proceedings and demanded the pub is vacated by 5 August 2026.” It had drawn 477 signatures by Monday, close to its goal of 500. Regulars are fighting to keep a pub with a weekly quiz, sports screenings and one of the biggest beer gardens in Southfields.
But Land Registry records show a more complex story. The Park Tavern’s 30-year lease reached its natural end last month, and in the past two years, it has seen a lot of activity. Current operators, MFM Pub Group Ltd, took on the lease on 26 November 2024, with just 18 months remaining before its June 2026 expiry.
The petition states they then spent more than £150,000 restoring the building; a significant business risk without a long lease to fall back on. Whether MFM’s investment gives them any legal right to stay depends on one unresolved point. Commercial leases either carry a right to a new tenancy when the term ends, under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, or they are “contracted out” of that protection from the outset, in which case a landlord can generally decline to renew.
It’s not clear which applies here. Star’s statement did not address the point. MFM say the lease is protected and that they have formally served a request for a new tenancy – see the update below.
What residents can do
Southfields residents who want the pub to remain in its current hands have three concrete options: sign the Save the Park Tavern petition, which campaigners plan to present to Star Pubs & Bars; contact ward councillors, including Cllr Glynne; and ask Wandsworth Council to list the pub as an Asset of Community Value.
That listing would not stop the current possession process on its own. Its legal effect is a moratorium if the freehold is ever put up for sale, giving a community group time to organise a bid. It is protection against a future sale, not a lever over what happens on 5 August.
Who actually owns the pub
Star Pubs Trading Ltd only became the Park Tavern’s freeholder on 1 June 2025. It did not buy the pub specifically. Land Registry records show the freehold arrived as part of a wider transfer from Red Star Pub Company Ltd, formerly West Register Ltd, which was a vehicle tracing back to RBS’s post-crash distressed property arm.
That company was wound up in September 2025. Heineken then inherited the Park Tavern’s freehold through a corporate consolidation, rather than targeting it.
The pub appears unlikely to close: Star’s business model is re-letting rather than shutting pubs. But it does beg the question: why not simply keep the operators in place, especially if they have invested in it?
Star publicly presents itself as an investor in struggling pubs rather than a closer of them. The company says it has put more than £300 million into its estate since 2018, including £40 million in 2025, and reopened 62 long-closed pubs in 2024. Its managing director, Lawson Mountstevens, has spoken of “keeping these pubs at the heart of their communities.” Its property director, Chris Moore, has framed the company’s approach in commercial terms: “The way to beat those pressures is to sell more, to increase your revenue. That’s what the investment’s about.”
Star’s record with its own regulator is more mixed. The Pubs Code Adjudicator fined the company £2 million in October 2020, finding it had “seriously and repeatedly” breached the statutory Pubs Code by imposing unreasonable stocking terms on tenants seeking to go free of tie. Star challenged the penalty, and it was reduced to £1.25 million in a 2023 High Court settlement, alongside a contribution to the regulator’s costs.
The Park Tavern’s interior carries its own national recognition, though not through statutory listing. CAMRA rates it a Two Star entry on its National Inventory of historic pub interiors, citing a 1902 core with a 1926 extension fitted out for the old Royal Brewery of Brentford, features campaigners say would be lost if the building’s use changed.
The threat comes against a backdrop in which Wandsworth pubs were already flagged among London’s most at risk as costs climbed, and campaigners point to the run of empty shopfronts nearby on Putney High Street and in Wandsworth Town as the fate they fear. It is the kind of loss that has made Putney pubs a recurring worry, and the Park Tavern is the latest test of it.
Star Pubs response
Putney.news put six questions to Star Pubs & Bars on Monday, including whether a formal notice has been served under the 1954 Act, whether MFM’s tenancy is protected or contracted out, and why the company has not offered the current operators a new lease. MFM Pub Group and Cllr Glynne were also contacted.
A company spokesperson said MFM “cannot remain at the pub due to serious issues that cannot be ignored during their tenure,” declining to give specifics and citing confidentiality around “the operator’s business arrangements.”
Star said it intends to reopen the Park Tavern “as soon as possible” after carrying out repairs, with a longer-term refurbishment of the ground floor trading area and the building’s exterior planned, and said it already has interest from other operators keen to take the pub on. The company reiterated its investment in its wider estate, citing £328 million since 2018 and a further £44.5 million this year: figures that update those cited earlier in this story, which were drawn from Star’s public reporting for 2025. The statement did not address whether MFM’s tenancy is protected or contracted out under the 1954 Act.
MFM response
Putney.news put Star’s characterisation to MFM Pub Group. A company spokesperson disputed it, said the tenancy has not ended and that no court proceedings have been issued, and confirmed MFM formally served a request for a new ten-year lease under section 26 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 on 17 July. “Our position has never changed: we want to trade, pay our way, and hold a lease of the Park Tavern on fair terms,” the spokesperson said.
The 5 August deadline set out in the petition remains three weeks away. We will update this story if MFM or Cllr Glynne respond to Star’s statement, and will report what happens to the Park Tavern as that date approaches.
Update, 4pm, Tuesday 21 July: We have added responses from Star Pubs and MFM.
An old Savills brochure online suggestes it is within the 1954 Act – extract below:
Tenure Leasehold. We understand the premises are held on the remainder of 30 year Heineken lease from 7 June 1996 (expiring 2026 within the protection of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954). The current passing rent is £76,500 per annum exclusive with the next review in June 2021. The lease is free of tie on bottled beers, wine, spirits and minerals and tied on draught beers and draft and bottled ciders and ales. Interested parties will be required to provide suitable security under the terms of the lease, which may include a rent deposit and personal guarantees.