Oxford music venue The Cellar has closed

The venue has hosted the likes of Foals, Supergrass, Pulled Apart By Horses, and The Cure's first ever gig, the independent venue has closed after ongoing rent negotiations.

Revealing the news on socials, The Cellar wrote in their statement, "After months of negotiations, we would have loved to have been able to take the landlord's final rent offer, but it came too late. What’s more, even with a vaguely do-able rent agreed, there were no guarantees on the time frame of the building work, which required access to the shop above and various structural considerations. Essentially, the whole process took far longer than we were expecting, and we simply could not keep operating under these conditions."

In 2017 the BBC reported the plans to convert the venue into a shop were withrdrawn after gathering 13,000 signatures.

Last November the venue launched its Cellar Forever Crowdfunder, which raised £92,000 from over 2000 donations to prevent the venue from closing. The new statement explains, "The amazing £92K that we raised will be returned to everyone's bank accounts."

The statement adds, "This is a sad time for Oxford's city centre, with so many vacant shops and bars all around us, and we hope that our closure will be noted as part of the situation that is eroding our cultural communities. We have tried hard to save our beloved venue, but hopefully its closure will fuel further discussion between landlords and the council to stem further destruction of our beloved city."