New The George Tavern landlord speaks out about takeover

The pub, which is the focal point of Oldham’s yearly pride celebrations, was saved from closure after ‘To Let’ signs appeared outside.

Tom Sharman owns The Woodcock Group – which has a total of six venues under its belt, including opening Bury’s drag bar the House of Bridget around three years ago.

Aged just 26, Bury native Tom said his Bury location is ‘one of the busiest spots on Silver Street’.

Now he has ambitions to open and acquire even more.

Tom said: “I’m a grafter, I don’t take days off. There were never any queer spaces when I was growing up in my hometown, they were only ever in Manchester. 

“I just saw a gap in the market – why shouldn’t there be gay bars and drag bars in every local town? The same way you have a sports bar, an Irish bar.”

The George Tavern (Image: Jack Fifield, Newsquest)

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Tom says entertainment at The George has now been booked out and planned for the rest of the year – though the pub will be drip-feeding the schedule on its social media channels.

A gay man himself, Tom says reaction from drag queens to his out-of-city-centre drag bars has been mixed.

He added: “You can imagine the mixed responses I get when I asked the girls to come over from Manchester to Bury, and then I asked them to come to Oldham as well.

“Some say yes, some say no, but all in all it’s been quite positive.”

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There won’t be too much change at the pub at first, with Tom planning on running it in a similar manner as previous landlady Terri Fox, who announced her departure in September.

Tom said: “Initially we’re going to run The George in the same capacity it was previously, because that worked.

“We’re going to run it in the same way Terri and David did, the same pricing structure, same entertainment structure.

“We’ll see whether that flies before we make any decisions on whether we change anything.

"The impression we’re getting is that Oldham is quite close-knit – everybody seems to know everybody around here, which is a positive.

“We’re going to run it as they had it, to their vision to begin with. Perhaps we’ll see down the line what avenues it could open, but primarily we will be keeping it as a queer space and as a stepping stone for drag.”

The pub is set to re-open tomorrow (November 10) in a ‘grand reopening’ event, which will span three days.

Drag queens Alix Atlantis, Babi-Chino, Cleo-De-Ville, and Alotta-Body are all set to make an appearance on the Friday.   

If you have a story, I cover the whole borough of Oldham. Please email me at jack.fifield@newsquest.co.uk.