A Bolton pub has closed after the landlord left over building issues which he said caused mushrooms to grow inside, mould to cover walls, and a ceiling to collapse in front of the main entrance. Pub landlord Craig Pinion took over the Cheetham Arms, on Blackburn Road, in 2022. At first, things looked promising – with a brand new refurbishment to boot.
But then, Craig said things started to go wrong – with leaking through the pub’s roof causing the pub to smell of damp. “It’s a shame, because we put lots of effort into getting that pub..
. at one point we had it working really well. Unfortunately, towards the end, with all the setbacks we’d had, it’s unrecoverable at this point,” Craig said.
At one point, he said the ceiling even fell down in front of the main entrance – leaving customers having to enter through the pub’s fire exit. Sign up to our newsletters to get the latest stories sent straight to your inbox. Craig said: “You couldn’t actually physically open the door – so we had to put a sign on saying ‘please use the fire exit’ – that’s not ideal for a pub.
“You’ve got things like the smell of damp, so when you’re trying to run a food business, even though the kitchen’s in good repair and we had a five star [food hygiene] rating, people are going to doubt. “You’re going into a pub that smells of damp, which has black mould on the walls. Even though we’re doing everything in our power to try and keep on top of it, it’s no t.