{"id":938212,"date":"2026-05-05T00:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/938212\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T00:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:48:24","slug":"its-a-pub-its-a-rave-temple-and-now-the-golden-lion-is-at-war-with-the-neighbours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/938212\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s a pub, it’s a rave temple and now the Golden Lion is at war with the neighbours"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 18th Century pub in the Calder Valley is an unlikely home for some of the north’s best raves. But that’s exactly what the Golden Lion in Todmorden<\/a> is.<\/p>\n

Over the last few years the likes of David Holmes, Jarvis Cocker, Kevin Rowlands, Don Letts, Jon DaSilva, Leftfield, Groove Armada, Goldie and the late Andrew Weatherall, who is remembered with a shrine behind the bar, have all played at the Grade II-listed former coaching house. It’s become so popular clubbers old and young from across the country regularly make the pilgrimage to the old mill town, just over the border from Rochdale<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But now it’s at war with it’s neighbours. In recent days several noise complaints have been made about the unconventional pub, which also doubles up as a Thai restaurant and community hub hosting everything from choir practices to UFO clubs.<\/p>\n

And it left the owners considering closing down the music venue part of the business. In a post on Instagram joint-owner Matthanee Nilavongse, known as Gig, asked regulars to write to the local council in support of the venue or ‘I’ll have to cancel all the bookings and move on’.<\/p>\n

She added: “I\u2019m having enough of running the music venue. We\u2019ve got several complaint in the past three weeks from some random.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve believed we\u2019ve been targeting and malicious. We hadn\u2019t change anything recently, same sound system, same wall. We had minibus of people from Leeds, Manchester, London, Sheffield etc.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Gig pictured outside the Golden Lion in 2023<\/p>\n

“We had people fly over from around the world to come to visit Todmorden. All the air BnB\/Bed and Breakfast, Market, Laundry, other cafes and restaurants, Taxi, landlords are all benefit from us. It\u2019s your choice.”<\/p>\n

Regulars, DJs and other leading figures from the music industry replied to the post showing their support. Former Warehouse Project boss Sacha Lord wrote: “I\u2019m sick to death of these NIMBYS who threaten businesses and jobs.”<\/p>\n

Manchester DJ Luke Una, founder of club nights Homoelectric, Electric Chair and E Soul Cultura, wrote: “This is outrageous\u2026 we are behind you.” And Joe Godadard from electronic act Hot Chip, whose bandmate Alexis Taylor recently performed at the venue, wrote: “Writing. Don\u2019t give up!”<\/p>\n

Following the appeal Gig said the council had received hundreds of emails in support of the pub. And in an update on Thursday she said the groundswell of well-wishers had convinced her to remain open.<\/p>\n

She wrote: “Thank you for all your support over past week, you\u2019ve helped. Golden Lion is not [going to] close.<\/p>\n

“The situation did feel like the threat and controlling that make me felt thrown the towel. The team and staff is working much harder to make sure we are doing the good things. We all put heart and soul into it.<\/p>\n

“It’s made me feel ever stronger to keep it open for them and for you.”<\/p>\n

A Calderdale Council spokesperson said: “We take all complaints about noise seriously and can confirm that we have received a small number of complaints about the Golden Lion in Todmorden. As these are currently being actively investigated, we are unable to comment further at this stage.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 18th Century pub in the Calder Valley is an unlikely home for some of the north’s best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,393,4884,696,11653,1620,16,15,185318,2302],"class_list":{"0":"post-938212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester-music","12":"tag-premium","13":"tag-sheffield","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unmissable","17":"tag-yorkshire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116519220527969965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}