Pub is The Hub (UK)
Small grants (up to £6,000) plus free advice from industry professionals. Every pound invested creates over eight pounds of value for the place, by calculation.
AN EXHIBITION IN FIVE ROOMS
The Museum of Good Intentions
Six real funding programmes in five rooms. All of them took a risk: four adjusted course along the way, two hold up today. We build on what they learned.
4 minutes reading time
ROOM 1 · LOWER AUSTRIA
The grant without support
“Of 57 funded pubs, roughly one in five had closed again soon after.”
€10,000 for taking over or opening a pub, paid out without selection and without support — often to businesses that did not need the money. As of May 2026: 57 funded pubs, 11 of them closed again; in those cases the province reclaimed the grant. The programme continues.
Lesson Money only works with support.
ROOM 2 · UNITED KINGDOM
The application as doorman
“Over 81% of applications in round 1 were turned down.”
The fund for community buy-outs asked for work up front and skill in writing applications — the people who needed help most got stuck on the paperwork.
Lesson Access decides who a programme reaches in the first place.
ROOM 3 · NORTH RHINE-WESTPHALIA
The time after the money
“Even generously funded places did not pay their own way after three years — the state had to add stabilisation funding.”
North Rhine-Westphalia gave its „Dritte Orte“ (third places) generous backing. And still: when the funding period ran out after three years, even the well-equipped venues did not pay their own way. The state added stabilisation funding — money for the time after the money.
Lesson The question “What pays its own way afterwards?” belongs at the start, not at the end.
ROOM 4 · FRANCE
When the grant stays
“The evaluation has much praise — and a warning: many places stay on the grant permanently.”
Here the grant has an end date: 407 places receive €50,000 a year for three years, on a planned tapering curve. The evaluation praises the programme explicitly — and still finds many places that stay on the grant permanently.
Lesson Even good design needs an honest ending — tapering is right, but it is not enough.
ROOM 5 · WHAT HOLDS UP
Two programmes that last
1000 cafés (France)
71% of the budget goes into selection, training and support for the licensees. The programme is growing more slowly than planned — the approach still holds up.
Lesson Advice before money. The licensee is the investment.
And that is why we do it this way.
Five principles — one from each room.
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Money only comes with support.
Every euro comes with advice, training and a network. That turns one pound into over eight — instead of one in five grants into a loss.
from Room 1 · Lower Austria -
Apply in an hour.
One page, one phone call or one voice message. The people who need help most must not be stopped by the application.
from Room 2 · United Kingdom -
What brings in revenue comes first.
From day one, every measure answers one question: what pays for itself after twelve months?
from Room 3 · NRW -
Funding has an end date — and a plan for what comes after.
Grants taper off to plan. Continuity comes from instruments that stay — not from the next pot of funding.
from Room 4 · France -
The licensee is the investment.
Selection, training and the network licensees build among themselves are the largest item in the budget — not facades.
from Room 5 · What holds up
And everything we learn along the way we share openly — so that 20 pubs can become 200.
The five principles as a PDF (German)Do you fund, endow or decide?
Let's talk about how your contribution does not fizzle out.
Request a conversation →Do you run a pub yourself?
We are looking for 20 places to back with money, know-how and a network. Two minutes, four fields, no red tape.
Get in touch →Pass this exhibition on
Where the figures in this exhibition come from: Method, assumptions and sources.