Hotel closures cause anger among staff and customers

The Beeches in Standish left scores of customers in the dark after failing to open without warning last weekend.

Plans for weddings, birthday parties and wakes were left in chaos, and customers were unable to get in touch with the venue’s management; instead having to find out through word of mouth that the hotel had run into difficulties.

Now, the Wigan Observer understands that CG Recovery, a Manchester based insolvency firm, has been appointed to handle the liquidation process.

Filing history from Companies House shows that the registered office of the hotel was changed on January 19 from its School Lane address to the offices of CG Recovery in St Anns Square, Manchester.

CG Recovery did not respond to requests for a comment and The Beeches management has been unreachable since news of the closure first broke.

It is the second depressing story about a once-popular entertainment venue in as many days with the announcement that the Griffin Hotel on Standishgate has been put up for sale by owners Admiral Taverns.

Landlord Ian Williams is furious about the decision which he says has nothing to do with him and suggested the owners want to turn the iconic building into apartments. He said: “I’m really quite angry.

“It’s a major loss to our heritage in Wigan. People go out of their way to come here.

“I’ve emailed all our councillors and our MP (Lisa Nandy) to try and get the property accredited as an asset of community value.

“The Griffin has never really cost them anything to run, but they’re closing it. It’s kind of annoying.”

He claimed that bosses at Admiral Taverns were unwilling to negotiate and said “their decision was final.”

Admiral Taverns, were unreachable for comment at the time of publication.

Mr Williams took over the running of the pub in 2013 and came with many big plans, including restoring the Griffin as a hotel as well as a watering hole. An historic building, its most famous landlord was Billy Boston, but it also had periods of closure before its latest rescue by Mr Williams.