The Garibaldi is now ours!
Over the last few years, The Garibaldi has faced its biggest challenge in its 160 plus year history – buying the freehold and securing the pub for the community forever more, and on Friday August 7th 2026 we officially bought the pub!
In 2024 we received the news that the building was being put up for auction.
We immediately began a dialogue with the owner, who has proved over the past couple of years to be one of our biggest supporters. He kindly offered us first refusal on the freehold, if we could find a way to fund the purchase. While we leapt at the chance, we then had to work out how on earth we could fund it!
The phrase “community” gets bandied around a fair bit, but in this instance it is the true meaning of our business – the pub isn’t owned by anyone but the community itself, and while the staff are paid, no individual or corporation has any share of the ownership or can take any profits from the business. Every penny we make gets re-invested back into the business and enables us to support and host community events for little or no cost, making The Garibaldi a vital community space.
Whilst this is the exact business model we wanted to take forward, and the only way to ensure the pub remained truly community-owned, it also meant that we could not explore paths like loans or shares, which further tied our hands.
Luckily, we have some incredible people in our community!
There are so many people to thank, however some names truly stand out…
Lucy Beach, who has been instrumental (and relentless!) in applying for grants and funding, with great success!
Our Community, of course! We’ve had such generous support from our locals, whether via the Crowdfunders and donations, attending our special events, or just by coming in for a pint: every action supports the pub – thank you all so much!
Our grant-granters! Huge thanks to Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Strategic Fund, CIL Local Fund, Thriving Communities, St. James’s Place, RV1 gin, Reigate & Redhill Society, Power to Change, National Lottery, GOVIA,Tesco, Redstone Redhill Rotary Club and The Gari Good Guys
Our local breweries, who have supported us in many, many ways, as well as supplying us with delicious beers! With special thanks due to Adrian, Rory and the team at Pilgrim Brewery. Like us they started their business venture nearly nine years ago and the two businesses have worked closely together ever since. Their support over the past two years of our journey has been most welcome, and now it’s our turn to support them and help bring live music back to The Cage in Reigate.
Big thanks also go to Dropkick Brewery, who we collaborated with for our first brew of Gari gold and our second brew of Gari sold which launches on Monday.
And there are a host of others who have contributed in all sorts of ways, particularly 360 Brewing, Crafty Brewing, Crumbs, Dorking Brewery, Firebird, Gun Brewery, Iron Pier, Only With Love, Surrey Hills, Titsey, and the much missed By The Horns
Our local councillors, from whom we’ve had near unanimous support across all parties, including but by no means limited to Elly Heaton, Gillian Vischer, Steve Kulka, Rich Michalowski, James King and our local MP, Rebecca Paul (who even raised our campaign in Parliament!).
Juliet Whitmore. The most incredible powerhouse, who managed to organise our rag-tag army, dealing with all aspects of everything throughout the process. There is simply no way we would have bought the pub if we didn’t have her!
The Directors – From the original board of Directors and FOTG Committee, chaired by the late Jim Howley, through to our current incarnation we are a group with a diverse range of backgrounds, all contributing time, effort, wisdom and support from the very beginning, to today and onwards into the future
And, of course, our Manager, Shiv Lewis. Pubs have it so hard these days, with two closing every day. We’re lucky beyond belief to have somebody who understands every aspect of the trade and fully embraces the true meaning of community, ensuring we have a safe, welcoming place for all, somewhere that truly gives back to the area, where local groups are supported and nurtured, and serving the best beer in town to boot – Shiv exemplifies the heart and soul of The Garibaldi!
Our journey isn’t over, though. We have big plans for the future, both for the pub itself and for how we can supercharge our contributions to the community. And we have a mortgage to pay off!
We’ll keep you updated in all the usual ways, so please continue to come and support us, and let us know if you’d like to be involved in any way – we’re always looking for volunteers!
But, for now, we’ll see you soon, and you can enjoy those drinks a little bit more now, knowing that it’s your pub!