The Cellar nightclub has closed down for good

The Cellar night club has officially closed its doors after struggling to come to an agreement with landlords St Michael’s and All Saints’ Charities over rent.

The owner told The Oxford Mail there would have been too many uncertainties around how long the building work would have taken in order to increase the capacity of the nightclub.

A crowdfunding campaign was set up in 2018 to save The Cellar after it failed to meet fire safety regulations. The campaign received donations from over 2000 people and raised £92,000. Now that the club is closing, all the money donated is to be refunded. Registered winners can still claim prizes.

The Cellar was located near Cornmarket Street, and was one of Europe's oldest live music venues.

Although The Cellar will be closing, the landlords understand how important The Cellar has been to so many people, and there is hope that the venue will continue to be a live-music venue in the future.

Tim Hopkins, venue manager at The Cellar, said: “We are very sad to inform you that The Cellar closed its doors for the last time on 11th March 2019. After crunching the numbers, a thousand times over, the Hopkins family, who have run the independent music venue, for nearly 40 years, have sadly come to conclusion that they cannot continue.

“After months of negotiations, we would have loved to have been able to take the landlord’s final rent offer, but it came too late.

“What’s more, even with a vaguely do-able rent agreed, there were no guarantees on the time frame of the building work, which required access to the shop above and various structural considerations.”

Goodnight my sweet Prince

He aded: "This is a sad time for Oxford's city centre, with so many vacant shops and bars all around us, and we hope that our closure will be noted as part of the situation that is eroding our cultural communities."