Cambridge 'Pink Floyd' Flying Pig pub faces demolition

There has been a pub on the site of The Flying Pig since the 1840s

A pub famous for its links with rock band Pink Floyd is set to be demolished, despite an earlier apparent reprieve.

The Flying Pig in Cambridge is a popular live music venue, but has been under threat for more than a decade.

A plan that would have seen it partly retained as part of a new development was rejected and the managers have been given six months to leave.

The developer said he did not want it demolished and may appeal.

There has been a pub on the Hills Road site since the 1840s, and original Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett is said to have met future Floyd guitarist David Gilmour there in the 1950s.

David Gilmour (right) joined Pink Floyd in 1968 - and founding member Syd Barrett (in glasses)

The pub, and the land surrounding it, is owned by Pace Investments.

Plans to develop the area - which included demolishing the blue-fronted Victorian pub - were approved by the city council in 2008, the development company's managing director, Jonathan Vincent, said.

However, the company adjusted them in 2019 after almost 14,000 people signed a petition pleading to keep the pub intact.

The new plans, which would have seen some of The Flying Pig retained and but other parts demolished and rebuilt, were rejected earlier this year.

Managers Matt and Justine Hatfield have run The Flying Pig, and lived above it, for 24 years.

Mr Hatfield said it was previously known as The Engineer and The Crown Hotel, and changed to its current name in about 1991, long after an inflatable flying pig graced the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals.

The BBC contacted the landlord behind the last name change and he said it was chosen because of his own nickname and the fact he was a pilot.

On Monday, the current managers posted on Facebook that they were "deeply saddened... that, despite the public outcry and overwhelming love and support for our gorgeous grassroots music venue and real ale pub, the developer (our landlord) has issued us with six months' notice to vacate our home and the business premises that is the Flying Pig in October 2021."

Justine Hatfield has been running The Flying Pig pub with her husband Matt for 24 years

The couple said they had believed they would be able to remain in the pub until next summer, but Mr Vincent said both he and the Hatfields had agreed on a "rolling six-month lease" that either side could terminate at any time.

Mr and Mrs Hatfield said: "Having battled through the Covid pandemic with help from a generous crowdfunder donation and a cultural recovery grant from the Arts Council, we were just getting back on our feet, and business was looking healthy with our music back in the garden."

Thanking local people for supporting them, they added: "We can't regret a moment of the last 24 years, and as soon as we know what the future holds for us, we will let you know."

Mr Vincent said he had been very disappointed plans to retain The Flying Pig as part of a mixed-use development had been rejected.

"I've spent the last two years working with Justine and Matt, and others, and I was desperate to keep the pub - but that was refused.

"The only planning consent in place involves the demolition of the Flying Pig - so we either appeal the refused plan, or we go ahead with what has been approved."

The couple said: "We were just getting back on our feet"

He said he had "spent two years trying to find the right balance" and described it as "a pretty bruising experience".

Mr Vincent said he was taking advice on whether an appeal was "the right route".

Meanwhile, the Hatfield family looks set to leave their family home above the pub towards the end of October.

Signing off on Facebook, the couple said: "Sorry we couldn't keep the Pig flying."

Pink Floyd's Animals album cover featured an inflatable pig flying over Battersea Power Station in London (recreated here in 2011)

Update 18 June 2021: This story was amended to clarify that only part of the existing pub would have been retained under the developer's updated plans.