00:00 [Indistinct chatter]
00:11 It's been such a privilege to carry on my brother's amazing work here at the Horse and Groom
00:17 since he died so suddenly last year,
00:21 leaving us all in such a state of shock and sadness.
00:27 David had been bravely battling his illness for months,
00:32 and I do know that so many of you, loyal staff, customers and friends,
00:38 had been supporting him in that.
00:42 And I thank you again from the bottom of my heart.
00:46 This part ran into his veins.
00:50 He gave it his all.
00:52 It was everything, said him.
00:55 This is a hard day for us and bittersweet,
00:59 so I'd like to ask you to now raise a glass to David.
01:02 [All] To David!
01:04 [Laughter]
01:13 We were determined to reopen the pub,
01:16 and we did so together with Peter Knight in the driving seat.
01:21 He carried us along and kept the show on the road as only PK could.
01:28 Sorry that I am that PK isn't here today.
01:32 I'm happy to report that he's in France enjoying the rugby.
01:35 [Laughter]
01:37 I do want to mention here the extraordinary contribution that both Zoe and Katie Moss,
01:43 who helps me at home, have made to the success that is here today.
01:49 Also, my dear cousins and old friends, many of whom are here today.
01:55 I really was floundering in the deep end,
01:58 and together they've fished me out
02:02 [Laughter]
02:05 and supported me ever since. Thank you all.
02:08 Thank you all for being here and for having been here in the past
02:13 and regularly supporting this fantastic pub.
02:18 I've put in mind a quotation from Dr Johnson who said that
02:24 "There's nothing that has ever been contrived by man
02:28 which produces so much happiness as a good tavern or inn."
02:34 [Laughter]
02:35 And I think lots of us will say "hear, hear" to that.
02:39 So what makes a good pub for me, and this is my personal view,
02:44 is it's a place where you can come and relax
02:49 and you can have civilised conversation.
02:52 So there's no obtrusive noise, there's a soft ambience,
02:59 no obtrusive fat brown music, in this case of course no music at all.
03:08 Secondly, it has to do good beer, because it's not worthy of the name of pub
03:14 if it doesn't do good beer.
03:17 Obviously not everyone is a beer drinker,
03:20 but in any party of people there's bound to be a high proportion of people who are,
03:26 and they don't want to come along and drink a lot of gassy rubbish
03:31 manufactured in a chemical factory.
03:35 So that's an essential for a proper pub in my view.
03:42 Thirdly, I think it's good when you come into a place like this
03:48 if you feel that you're among friends,
03:51 or if you haven't met people that they're perhaps friends you haven't met yet.
03:58 I think the horse and groom ticks all of those boxes,
04:01 I think it's not so much a good pub that we've inherited from David
04:10 and his predecessor John Woolof,
04:13 with the essential help of Robert and Simon, where would we be without them?
04:19 I think it's a great pub.
04:21 So I do hope that everybody will continue to use it as they have done up to now,
04:30 and will enjoy a horse and groom as it is, and as I hope it always will be.
04:38 Thank you very much.
04:40 [Applause]
04:50 [Laughter]
04:58 [Background chatter]
