The Horns Pub Watford

The Horns Pub Reopens.

We officially reopened on the 14^th August 2020 with limited opening hours, limited capacity, limited live events.

BUT we are so very happy to say we are OPEN nonetheless.

Opening hours

Monday and Tuesday closed

Wednesday and Thursday 3pm-10pm (until we can have our regular live music events again)

Friday & Saturday 3pm – 1am with a live acoustic duo or trio (keeping within Governments guidelines)

We have been working really hard on our crowd fundraiser #SaveOurVenues via the Music Venue Trust with online live events that musicians kindly helped livestream whilst locked down at home.

We did a Save Our Venues Wall in The Horns Watford, writing all the names of the people that donated on the wall, it really is a special thing <3 Please see attached photo or better still pop in and have a pint while you admire it YAY😊

Lots of customers, friends and family all worked hard sharing social media posts donating to our fundraiser helping raise an amazing £8,500 towards the whopping total COVID has cost the venue.

While the Horns has been closed, we have also been working day and night to decorate paint, cover seats and totally freshen up and deep clean, the pub is looking very shiny and beautiful.

We have also got in place a very good COVID policy to keep you all safe. On entry you will need to do your hands with our hand sanitizers stations that you will find as you walk in the doors. Then staff will ask for track and track details and show you to your seats. We have an order point at the bar and a collection point, if a queue forms at the bar we ask you to take a seat and offer table service.

All our tables are set out to governments guidance and social distancing rules, touch points are cleaned every 15 minutes and tables fully sanitized before anyone is seated.

Of a weekend we have very talented acoustic duos and trios keeping music live at your local Grassroots Music Venue the Horns Watford.

Sadly, we only have room for acoustic duo’s & trio acts because of social distancing purposes.

The music is also kept to a talking level reducing the risk of aerosol transmission, enabling us to keep music live going and putting on some amazing acoustic acts of a Friday 9pm, Saturday 9pm, Sunday 4pm.

We really need you guys to come and support the venue, everything is in place to keep you safe and we can seat up to 60 people inside and over 40 outside in our very large garden.

You can pop in for a pint any time as we are a drinking pub as well as a music venue.

Times are hard with our trade reduced like it is, not being able to do the events we normally would. People being very wary of even coming out.   

We need your support more now than ever before if we are to survive this terrible pandemic and come out the other side rocking with the fantastic tributes, covers, original bands, open mics,

We are the only Grassroots Cultural venue in Watford.

We are applying for the Cultural Recovery Fund from Arts Council England; Our application will go in this week. So, fingers crossed for us as at the Horns Watford but there is no guarantee we’ll get it due to expected high demand across the country and the money is limited.

We haven’t received any grants from our local council as our rateable value was too high for the small business grant. Watford Borough Council were given money from the Government as Discretionary Grant Fund but decided to cap it to businesses at under £51k rateable value. Making it unable for the Horns Watford to apply.

We do appreciate that there are restrictions applied to ensure that small, independent businesses (that missed out on the small business grant) received the discretionary grant but of course very disappointed that Watford Borough Council chose not to use their discretion to provide us a lifeline as an independent family run business offering Watford something that nowhere else in the town does. 

It was only a few local authorises that chose to do this, Watford being one of them. Camden, Hackney and Lambeth local authorities announced that applications for business above the £51k threshold would be considered.

Music Venue Trust and I took this up with Watford Council when they kindly agreed to meet, however we were just directed to Culture Recovery Fund, that Music Venue Trust helped fight for in the first place. Or was told to visit the local business hub for ideas to help our business during COVID and adapting to chances.

So please come and support us every chance you get 😊

Send us positive vibes and cross those fingers and toes, that someone or something is looking over us the day the Arts council decide who gets some money.  I want to keep our much-loved music venue with live gigs forever please help me.

We will do all we can to fight to keep The Horns running, but while there are social distancing restrictions it’s nearly impossible to cover the costs and with all the financial support used, without the Government/ACE funding the days of The Horns live music will be numbered.

From Luke Hinton – Music Venue Trust – East England Coordinator / Juicebox Live Promotions

The Horns is Watford’s only Grassroots Music Venue, and as evidenced by their recent Crowdfunding campaign, a much-loved part of the Watford community. The Horns are a member of the Music Venue Alliance, as part of Music Venue Trust, and we are helping Jane and Jan to explore all opportunities open to them for support to give them the best chance possible of survival. We want The Horns to be there to give the next Mohair, The Spitfires or The Staves the opportunity to start out on their music journey.

Jane Giles – 20th August 2020

We have been working hard this year during the lockdown to spruce up Thes Horn Pub.
We asked, and you came to help us with a major spring clean and refresh.
We have been preparing through the early months of the summer for a grand reopening whenever it came.
Getting the Pub ready through teh Covid-19 crisis has been hard work, but we think you love the place when you come back to join us.