Pub where comic Chubby had first gig is up for sale
COMEDIAN PLAYED DRUMS IN BAND AT MAGNET
A LEGENDARY Grangetown pub where Roy “Chubby” Brown played his first gig is going under the hammer.
The Magnet Hotel has been derelict for years. And, later this month, the boarded-up boozer on Birchington Avenue will be sold to the highest bidder.
The Magnet was a popular pitstop for steelworkers over the years – and played a big part in the rise of one of Teesside’s biggest stars.
Chubby said in his autobiography Common As Muck! that he remembers the pub being built, while “sitting outside the chip shop as a kid”, and was later to perform there with his cousins in the band The Pipelines.
The comic told The Gazette in 2017: “This was where I had my first gig. I was p **** d so I wasn’t nervous – I got up and played the drums to a tune called Sherry Baby by The Four Seasons. It was with my high pitched voice before I got cancer.”
Auction House North East claims the once-popular pub is “due a new lease of life” and has “huge potential” due to its location, close to Teesside’s freeport zone. The plot has planning approvals for seven apartments.
“Contractor accommodation will certainly be in demand,” the auctioneer says,” this lot provides an excellent investment opportunity as the freeport develops.”
“In March 2021, as part of the Spring Budget,” they continued, “Tees Valley was announced as one of the first
places to get freeport status under the new Government policy to create freeports across the country.
“It will create more than 18,000 jobs and provide a £3.2bn boost to the local economy over the next five years.”
The pub site is set at a guide price of £69,000. Auction House North East requires all interested parties to be in a “position to legally exchange contracts on the fall of the gavel” on July 19.