A family-run gin distillery has announced the closure of its restaurant with a “heavy heart”.
The Brass Farthing Distillery opened after a three-year restoration and refurbishment of a Grade II listed Victorian sewage works in Chattingham docks. In 2016, the distillery bought the site from Midway Water after the water company declared that spending money on the treatment of raw sewage was not in the interest of its shareholders.
Instead, Midway Water said that
it would be dumping sewage straight into the River Midway, which it still does
today, just like all of the other
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| The Bilges restaurant : "Upmarket destination" in downmarket Chattingham. What could go wrong...? |
In 2020 the Brass Farthing Distillery subsequently opened a fine dining restaurant and cocktail bar in an adjacent Victorian sewage pump house called The Bilges, aiming to create an “upmarket destination” for food, drink and hospitality.
But, in a post that we skimmed off social media yesterday (January 16), the distillery announced the venue would be closing despite efforts to remain open, citing “Labo*r’s business-hostile October budget” as the sole contributing factor.
 |
| Evil Chancellor R*chel Re*ves |
“The recent evil Labo*r government’s budget has significantly increased operational costs, further worsened business outlook and has pushed our restaurant's viability beyond reach.”
“This decision was not made lightly, and we deeply regret the disappointment it will cause to our loyal customers. Not to mention our loyal staff who will all be losing their jobs, so we won’t.”
In June 2022, owner Simon Yapper said the distillery was being unfairly taxed and claimed the Treasury had a “vendetta" against rich people like him.
“What’s the point of a Tory government if rich people like me have to pay taxes,” he said at the time.
“Only poor people should pay tax. Asking people like me to pay taxes is just typical of left-wingers like Liz Truss who are now prominent in the Tory government these days.”
Speaking this afternoon on Facebook, Matthew Yapper, one of the founders of the business and operator of the Bilges, said they were “devastated” to have to shut up shop.
“In short, it’s purely down to evil Labo*r chancellor R*chel Re*ves, who is insisting that we pay our staff a decent minimum wage, along with an increase in employer national insurance contributions,” he explained.
 |
| Matthew Yapper: "It's NOT FAIRRR!!" |
“The reality was it was going to add somewhere in the region of £75,000 to our annual staff costs and I’m not going to be able to pay myself a hefty bonus with that additional sum.”
“The business was struggling from day one as there simply isn’t a market for high-priced London-style restaurants in a place like Chattingham, but of course we weren’t going to admit that our business plan was a lot of wishful thinking and hot air.”
“Fortunately, the election of a Labo*r government gave us an excuse to cut our losses and cash in by selling the site to developers, just like we were already planning to do anyway. Now we can cover up our own incompetence and greed whilst blaming R*chel Re*ves for our doomed operation shutting up shop, just like lots of other Tory businessmen…”
Mr Yapper said they had explored different ways to address such challenges and offset costs, including the usual standbys of firing some staff and forcing the rest to work harder while upping prices and cutting quality.
“In the end, we’ve simply decided to shut down and sell the site to developers,” he said.
“That gives me a nice little cash windfall. We’ve got a wonderful site here overlooking the river and we’ve had a very good offer for it from developers looking to build the usual luxury flats.”
Despite the closure of its restaurant, the Brass Farthing Distillery said that the Schitehouse Gin©™ and Schitehouse Whisky©™ brands “are still making us loads of money”.
On its Facebook post, the venue added that “it continues to thrive and therefore it will carry on welcoming visitors to Victorian sewage pump house experiences until the developers move in”.
The post finished by saying: “Our family business remains deeply rooted in making shed-loads of money from its customers and the community, whilst paying lip service to the heritage and craftsmanship of Chattingham.”
“Thank you for your understanding and your ongoing support. But mostly, thank you for your money. Long may you continue to give it to us...”
In the real world, the
usual social media-skimming
substitute for journalism doesn’t tell you that the hard-done-by business
owner whining about “Labour this” and “Labour that” is the chair of his local
Conservative association. Which is obviously nothing to do with his Labour-bashing stance, of course…
Comments:
Please note that we do not
moderate comments. However, we may edit or delete them, or manipulate the
voting on them in order to reflect our editorial policy.
Phil TheMentallyIll
wrote:
I sympathise deeply with Mr. Yapper. I agree with him when he says that this
closure is entirely the fault of Ke*r St*rmer and evil Chancellor R*chel Re*ves.
The removal of the universal Winter Fuel Payment, the imposition of inheritance
tax on farmland, increases in the minimum wage and employers national insurance
contributions and Ke*r St*rmer’s freebie spectacles are all directly
responsible for the closure of yet another Midway business. All those who voted
Labo*r at the last election should hang their heads in shame.
👍+132
Tornado Watcher wrote:
I note that the
👎👎👎👎-976
Yu Rong replied:
Ooooh get you and your tantrums. Labo*r is in government, so anything that goes
wrong must be their fault. Why do you stupid leftists continue to deny this
obvious truth?
👍+213
Neil Barse replied:
At last, Tornado Watcher confesses the truth about himself before slinking away
to stew in his own UK-hating demented leftist bile. A bitter lonely insidious
individual who's mental instability is getting worse by the day, due to the
fact they fail to annoy anyone with their constant sea-lioning and self-contradictory
posting. Completely expected every time Tornado Watcher posts on here.
👍👍👍👍+1024
Chad Grindr wrote:
At the end of the day, this Labo*r government is making our lives worse right
now - more expensive, and the morale of most of the country is very low with
little to look forward to. We need some good news for the majority of people,
not just public sector workers, Chinese spies, illegal immigrants and benefit
claimants. Under the Tories, Boris used to tell us that everything was great, we
all had more money in our pockets and the country was growing economically. We are
fed up with being told about the “disastrous Tory economic legacy” or the “£22
billion black hole” or the “Tory neglect of public infrastructure” blah blah
blah - unless you prefer the lefty semantics calculator!!
👍+198
Grey Mondeo Man replied:
Just because you are fed up with
being told the truth doesn’t make it less true. Or maybe you Tories just get
off on being lied to. It’s a sort of political foreplay to you lot – “Oh, oh,
Boris, lie to me again…pleeeease….!” It’s the only way to explain Brexit, Boris
Johnson as PM or the Daily Mail.
👎-16
Yu Rong replied:
Ooooh get you and your tantrums.
👍+45
Grey Mondeo Man replied:
Talking of being lied to as a
form of foreplay, heard from Neil Barse lately? Your baby-bulge must be getting
obvious by now.
👍+4
Yu Rong replied:
He only replies to you, not me. He’s a bastard and I hate him.😡
👍+8
Grey Mondeo Man replied:
Well, you won’t be the first one
to be shafted by a Tory and then left in the lurch. They’ve done it to the
whole country, after all. I dare say he’ll be blaming Ke*r St*rmer for you being
up the duff as well…
👍+22
Neil Barse replied:
A typically stupid reply from the typically stupid remoaning socialist
La**or-supporting woke snowflake that is GreyMondeoMan. Like all lazy parasitic
leftist scum, he is a blight on society and as such is unable to hold any sort
of discussion without resorting to vile, frothing insults. Crawl away and die,
you tofu-eating, Guardian-reading pillock.
👍+1
SuperSmallDick
wrote:
My local Tory councillor told me that all restaurants are to be closed down and
turned into luxury accommodation for the millions of illegal immigrants that
cross the
Pseudocreem 2
wrote:
Comrades, dear Mr. Putin says for you to vote REFORM in next elections because
all other political