Bunker 51 in administration and closed

[Colin Allen]

I don't know if this has been flagged up before, but Bunker 51 in Charlton went into administration on 1st December and is now closed.

[Tackle]

1 hour ago, Colin Allen said:

I don't know if this has been flagged up before, but Bunker 51 in Charlton went into administration on 1st December and is now closed.

Wasn't it run by wolf armouries ?, who I heard were selling the shop too ?

[Colin Allen]

4 minutes ago, Tackle said:

Wasn't it run by wolf armouries ?, who I heard were selling the shop too ?

No, they used to use it, but it was owned by a different company.

[Tackle]

Never played there myself, while I heard it was far from perfect, it's a shame as there isnt anything else in London to the best of my knowledge. 

When I think about the amount of places in my youth in London that would have made great sites, bloody shame how things have changed.

[Colin Allen]

8 minutes ago, Tackle said:

Never played there myself, while I heard it was far from perfect, it's a shame as there isnt anything else in London to the best of my knowledge. 

When I think about the amount of places in my youth in London that would have made great sites, bloody shame how things have changed.

I played there three times when I was getting my first UKARA registration many years ago.  My eldest son worked there for a while a few years ago; he had some utter horror stories about the place.

[Anonymoose]

8 minutes ago, Colin Allen said:

 My eldest son worked there for a while a few years ago; he had some utter horror stories about the place.

 

Do tell..

[Colin Allen]

14 minutes ago, Anonymoose said:

 

Do tell..

I will ask have to ask him if he is happy for me to go into details, but some of his key concerns were about a somewhat cavalier attitude to safety and mains wiring issues that he described as turning the place into a potential death trap; he now sometimes works on high power systems in major venues so knows what he is talking about.

[Cannonfodder]

Well that's a shame. I know alot of people like to crap on the place but tbh I never had any problems there (possibly because I went to midweek games). 

 

Thinking about it I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did, the rent alone must be bloody high considering the location 

[Rogerborg]

2 hours ago, Cannonfodder said:

Thinking about it I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did, the rent alone must be bloody high considering the location 

 

The old Depot warehouse site was run via a "community sports charity" so avoided rates that way. Rent would have been at tenants-of-last-resort levels, which is the problem with airsoft sites - they'll always be kicked off site the instant a more lucrative use can be found, and then you can kiss goodbye to anything you've spent on build works.   

[Cannonfodder]

That's certainly one way to lower costs but I'm not sure Bunker 51 could've done that as they also ran paintball laser tag and escape rooms.

 

From looking on companies house it appears that of all the related companies Bunker 51 is the only one going into administration so hopefully they're going to find a new site

[mirinjawbro]

pubs. shops. anything going to be left soon except barbers betting shops and vape shops?

[Colin Allen]

43 minutes ago, mirinjawbro said:

pubs. shops. anything going to be left soon except barbers betting shops and vape shops?

Nail bars.

[Speedy Sloth]

Coffee cafes and pawn broker's.

[Francisfung1126]

I had been there on the 30th of November, the staff didnt mentioned anything, so I did booked online for 4 people on the 5th of December after I backed home on that night........

 

And they closed on the 1st... but I paid £160....

 

Has rise a dispute with Monzo, but I doubt that I will get my money back....

 

[Colin Allen]

23 minutes ago, Francisfung1126 said:

I had been there on the 30th of November, the staff didnt mentioned anything, so I did booked online for 4 people on the 5th of December after I backed home on that night........

 

And they closed on the 1st... but I paid £160....

 

Has rise a dispute with Monzo, but I doubt that I will get my money back....

 

The staff may not have known.  However, given the resignations of directors, it seems that they were aware that it was going south in September, so taking a booking that late is pretty poor.

[Tackle]

3 hours ago, Francisfung1126 said:

 

And they closed on the 1st... but I paid £160....

 

Has rise a dispute with Monzo, but I doubt that I will get my money back....

 

That sucks, good luck🤞

[AK47frizzle]

Not surprised. I think it was double the cost of a normal game day everywhere else for half a game day till noon... Wanted to go play when I was staying in london for a while but could never justify the cost.

[ASP383]

On 24/12/2024 at 16:37, Francisfung1126 said:

I had been there on the 30th of November, the staff didnt mentioned anything, so I did booked online for 4 people on the 5th of December after I backed home on that night........

 

And they closed on the 1st... but I paid £160....

 

Has rise a dispute with Monzo, but I doubt that I will get my money back....

 

If it was anything like who I worked for, we knew some mobile engineers were quiet, although most of us were booked up for the next 2 months, we had a message for a company wide Teams meeting after work, where we were told the company had gone into administration and we were redundant immediately. Only the director and a couple others knew the administrators had been called in. even our area managers didn't know anything about it.

At least I'm starting my new job in a few weeks time, but I know it's a rough time for anyone in retail and hospitality, with the amount of those businesses going bust or closing stores.

[rj1986]

On 28/12/2024 at 16:38, ASP383 said:

If it was anything like who I worked for, we knew some mobile engineers were quiet, although most of us were booked up for the next 2 months, we had a message for a company wide Teams meeting after work, where we were told the company had gone into administration and we were redundant immediately. Only the director and a couple others knew the administrators had been called in. even our area managers didn't know anything about it.

At least I'm starting my new job in a few weeks time, but I know it's a rough time for anyone in retail and hospitality, with the amount of those businesses going bust or closing stores.

When a company I worked for went bust, only people who knew were the owners, the HR manager and head of IT.

 

They let us work for 3 and a half weeks before they pulled the plug, knowing there was no money to pay us. I lost about £20k in wages, notice, holiday and banked OT.

 

One of the owners even took out a £40k business loan and fled to Australia a week after the company closed.

[ASP383]

On 29/12/2024 at 19:49, rj1986 said:

When a company I worked for went bust, only people who knew were the owners, the HR manager and head of IT.

 

They let us work for 3 and a half weeks before they pulled the plug, knowing there was no money to pay us. I lost about £20k in wages, notice, holiday and banked OT.

 

One of the owners even took out a £40k business loan and fled to Australia a week after the company closed.

I was lucky, we were aid up until the Friday, but still 1 week short of the full month and the administrators paid our outstanding holiday. Had to apply for redundancy and notice through the Government website, as I'd only been with the company 6 years, I didn't lose out on any of that, but quite a few of the guys who had been with the company for 30+ years and gone through multiple buyouts, lost out on quite a lot, due to the caps in place on the payments from the Government.

I don't know how long the administrators had been in for, but as I say, only a few people knew, but they were in long enough for the HGV division to be saved and revert back to it's original name, the Met Police vehicle maintenance contract to be secured back in house and the mechanics in the workshops were tupe'd over. Everyone (including myself), that worked for the mobile part of the company were let go, as they apparently couldn't find a buyer for us.

At least with the parts team going, there were no lists of our van stock and with both area managers going too, there was no list of which engineers had what IT and other tech. A few guys (1 assisted by 1 of the area managers), even removed all the racking from their vans and filled them with garden and other waste, before they were collected by either the administrators or lease company (depending on who owned them), but mine is still sat in the car park, MOT has now run out, so no doubt DVLA will soon take it away.

[Jacob Wright]

Sounds a bit like what happened with Rivus Fleet, or Babcocks. Can’t remember now he kept the Met servicing contract.