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General News

7 July, 2022

New lease on life for Talbot’s London House

Talbot’s London House will soon be opening as the Talbot London House Cafe, with local resident Gerard Murphy officially taking over the lease with the goal of creating a community meeting place. Talbot Action Inc holds the head lease for the...

By Christie Harrison

New lease on life for Talbot’s London House - feature photo

Talbot’s London House will soon be opening as the Talbot London House Cafe, with local resident Gerard Murphy officially taking over the lease with the goal of creating a community meeting place.

Talbot Action Inc holds the head lease for the building and following an expression of interest process, announced its new tenant this week, with Mr Murphy set to open the cafe later this month.

Talbot Action Inc (TAI) secretary Graham Miller said the new cafe was welcome.

“It’s with great pleasure that Talbot Action Inc is able to announce that we have a new tenant for the cafe in London House,” he said.

“London House is such an important building to the Talbot community and TAI is looking forward to seeing a new business venture begin.

“This is an exciting new chapter for the building and the town and we thank Gerard for his commitment to the future of the cafe and to the town’s growth.”

The London House building was formerly home to the successful Talbot Provedore and Eatery, launched by Jayne Newgreen and Christopher Howe in 2016, which closed earlier this year.

The new Talbot London House Cafe will operate from 9 am to 4 pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

It will also be opening for select hours during the day on Thursdays, while dinner will be served some Friday nights and every Saturday night.

Mr Murphy said he decided to put his hand up to open a cafe to create a place for the community to gather.

“I wanted to get London House open again for the Talbot and larger Central Goldfields community,” he said.

“People were talking around town that there wasn’t anywhere to go, so I teamed up with Belinda and submitted an expression of interest, and the TAI awarded it to us.

“It’ll be a meeting place for people to come in for a tea or coffee, and a piece of cake. There’ll be a straight forward menu. We want it to be a place where people can come and hang their hat, see their friends and talk to people.”

The cafe is set to be managed by Belinda Fabry, the former owner of Maryborough’s Madam Chi Chi eatery which closed earlier this year and Mr Murphy said their combined experience will serve the new cafe well.

“I’ve had a couple of restaurants in the past so I know the game and what it’s about which is why I’ve put my hand up,” he said.

“Belinda will be the mainstay of the day-to-day operations, doing some cooking and out the front. We’ll find a few staff and off we’ll go.”

According to council — which owns London House — no expressions of interest were received for the lease of the building by the closing date and a proposal was later submitted to Talbot Action Inc by Mr Murphy and Ms Fabry, which was accepted by the group pending council approval.

Central Goldfields Shire CEO Lucy Roffey delegated authority to implement the Property Occupancy Policy and approve the head lease and sub-lease, and given Mr Murphy is a current Central Goldfields Shire councillor, council undertook a process to ensure there were no conflicts of interest.

“Given councillor Murphy’s business interest in the lease, probity advisors AFS & Associates were appointed to review the process to ensure that it had been conducted in accordance with council’s Property Occupancy Policy and that any conflicts of interest had been appropriately managed,” Ms Roffey said.

“The probity advisors provided assurance that the documentation provided by Talbot Action Inc demonstrated compliance with the head lease and the Property Occupancy Policy, prior to giving approval for the sub-lease.”

Central Goldfields Shire mayor Chris Meddows-Taylor said he was excited for the new chapter for London House.

“Our sincere thanks to everyone who has worked on securing a new tenant for London House — it’s wonderful news and is a huge boost for the community of Talbot,” he said.

“Many thanks to Talbot Action Inc for months of hard work to plan the next venture for the complex, and their work with council’s CEO to ensure the next chapter is on a contemporary public sector lease arrangement.

“Thank you also to council CEO Lucy Roffey for ensuring the highest possible standards of compliance had been met.”

The cafe is expected to open later this month.

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