London's celebrity publicans

You're a successful celebrity with a bit of cash in the bank. You're not the kind of person to design a range of monogrammed cashmere sweaters or license a perfume. But - like one in four Britons, according to a recent survey - you have always had a hankering to own a pub. Somewhere near home, all exposed beams and old men drinking ale, where you could get a hearty Sunday roast. After all, it can't be that hard, can it?

Earlier this month Sir Ian McKellen became the latest famous face to buy a pub. His premises, The Grapes in Limehouse, was built in 1720 and immortalised by Charles Dickens in Our Mutual Friend (there are stories of local drunks being drowned and their bodies sold to medical colleges by regulars). Sir Ian bought it partly out of fear that it would be taken over by a big brewery and redeveloped. The former landlady Barbara Haigh (an erstwhile Bunny Girl) said, 'I've fought hard to keep it an East End boozer. He lives practically next door, so now he very nearly has an en-suite pub. The locals have mixed feelings. Some are delighted, some don't like change.'

Conversely, Ye Olde Kings Head in Chigwell, the pub that Alan Sugar's company Amsprop recently snapped up, hasn't really retained its old world charms (Dickens was a visitor here, too - he must have loved a cheeky tankard). Instead, it's been turned into a Turkish restaurant called Sheesh, with zebra-print carpets and flaming torches outside.

Piers Morgan owns The Hansom Cab on Earls Court Road with his brother Rupert, who previously managed The Punchbowl in Mayfair for Guy Ritchie. The family have form in the pub business; their parents ran The Griffin Inn in East Sussex and young Piers used to be told off for smelling of booze at primary school, having been roped in to restock the bar early in the mornings. 'I'll confess that I'm a pub addict,' he has said. Like The Punchbowl, which is a celebrity magnet, The Hansom Cab attracts Morgan's famous friends - expect to see Amanda Holden, Duncan Bannatyne or Emily Maitlis hoping for a lock-in. Given the family's experience, and the fact that they have the good sense not to involve the globe-trotting charmer too closely in day-to-day operations, the pub has a decent chance of staying open.

Letting your non-celebrity kids do the hard work is also a recipe for success. Michael Parkinson shares a Michelin star at the Royal Oak in Maidenhead with his son Nick, who trained at The Savoy. He admits that it was 'a shambles' ten years ago and was forced to take down his pictures of Parky in chat-show mode after customers complained 'it was like eating in a tomb'.

BBC Breakfast presenter and newsreader Louise Minchin helped pull pints in the pubs her husband runs when they were starting out a decade ago, but now leaves it all to him. 'There have been stages where I'd leave for work at 4am and he wouldn't yet be back from the Sands End in Fulham,' she says. 'But I'm very proud of the pubs.' Newsreading and hostelries seem to go hand in hand: Andrea Catherwood owns The Carpenters Arms in Hammersmith and ex-GMTV presenter Fiona Phillips bought the Greyhound Inn in Dorset earlier this year.

Footballers also have a habit of buying pubs.The Pig's Ear, a decent gastropub in Chelsea and Prince William's favourite boozer, has been owned by Frank Lampard and his father since 2008.

However, as Paul Charity, editor of industry magazine The Publican's Morning Advertiser, explains, many celebrities don't have the experience: 'It's a tough job. It can require a 60- to 80-hour week, and they're usually busy elsewhere. They think they can just sprinkle their fairy dust, but there's a lot of boring stuff to get right, like gross profits. Even celebrity chefs who arrive with decent cooking skills often come with huge brigades that aren't suited to pubs and their wage bills go through the roof.' He points out that Gordon Ramsay has already sold two of his and Jean Christophe Novelli is no longer involved with The White Horse in Harpenden.

Before the recession, Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans had three pubs, but now only owns The Mulberry Inn near Chiddingfold, Surrey. Actor Neil Morrissey was reportedly left with debts of £2.5 million when his pub and hotel business collapsed in 2009 (part of which was Dylan Thomas's old local, for which he outbid Pierce Brosnan). As Charlie McVeigh, owner of The Draft House group, puts it: 'A pub run by an amateur is a reliable recipe for heartbreak. And that applies as readily to superannuated celebs as it does to retiring policemen and footballers.' Here's hoping Sir Ian has hired an indomitable Bet Lynch type to run his. ES