Bar closes after 'running out of money for beer'

The King Billy Rock Bar is popular with music fans and bikers

A town centre pub has closed suddenly, blaming operating costs.

The King Billy Rock Bar on Commercial Street, Northampton, ceased trading on Tuesday.

Rachel Nash, landlady for the past two years, said high running costs, the venue's location and a lack of returning customers left "no money for beer" and had resulted in the sudden closure.

The venue's owner, Star Pubs and Bars, said it was looking for a new landlord.

Earlier this month, Ms Nash, 59, told the pub’s 10,000 Facebook followers to “use it or lose it” and cut its opening hours to just weekends in an attempt to keep it open.

However, this was not enough to prevent its closure.

"I’d been juggling for ages and then we ran out of everything on Saturday night," she said.

"It’s costing about £15,000 a month to run the pub without staffing costs and paying for bands."

'It consumes you'

Ms Nash said: "People haven’t got the money and it just comes to the point where you think 'What else can I do?'.

"It was a good a time as any because we’d run out of everything.

"For the past two or three months, I've sat there and put my beer order on the computer and seen how much it is and then looked at what I can take off that order.

"You rack your brains; it consumes you."

Ms Nash said that the closure was down to "a combination of factors", including its location "all the way down Bridge Street".

Despite the closure of the pub, Ms Nash said she did not "regret a minute".

She said: "I want to thank everybody who has supported us because they know we’ve tried.

"To my pub family, it’s been great and thank you all so much.

"They have appreciated what we’ve done and that kind of makes it all worthwhile."

A spokesperson for Star Pubs and Bars said the bar "only closed temporarily whilst we recruit someone new to take it on, with a view to it reopening in time for Christmas".