Affinity Bars and Restaurants group closes down

The Affinity group of London bars and restaurants has unexpectedly shut down, including Dickie Fitz in Fitzrovia, the Lady Ottoline in Bloomsbury, the Henry Root in Chelsea and the Princess Victoria in Shepherd's Bush.

The company does not appear to have gone into administration according to Companies House, however websites for Affinity and all the venues have all shut down.

One member of staff at the Princess Victoria (pictured) operating its Twitter account tweeted the "entire company has shut down" and staff have been "locked out".

"Unfortunately we have been closed down as of 7am this morning and are not open anymore for the foreseeable future," the pub tweeted on Friday. "80 staff across 3 venues have lost jobs. If we do reopen it probably won't be us."

A longer post on the pub's Facebook page read: "As of today we are unfortunately closed, out of the blue, no one was expecting it but all of our sites across affinity bars and restaurants have been shut down as of 7am this morning and 80 staff have lost their jobs, apologies to any customers wanting to come in but there is nothing we can do. And to those who had functions booked and paid for we literally found out at 7am this morning, on behalf of all the staff we are so extremely sorry and we hope there is something we can do for you however our higher ups have decided that we need to close with immediate effect. Lots of hard working, dedicated staff have lost their jobs and we are sorry that we couldn't look after you in the future."

The group was overseen by chief executive James McLean until late last year, when McLean appears to have left the group to found Victual Inns. The directors of the company, according to Companies House, are now Andrew Wettern, Anna and Richard Fulford-Smith, and Simon Wainwright.

No one from Affinity could not be reached for comment by the time of going to press.

Menuwatch: Princess Victoria >>

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