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A “vital” music venue which hosts live acts seven nights a week will close unless a quarter-of-a-million pounds can be raised to stop a takeover.

Staff at The Silver Bullet say it will be “a sad day for Finsbury Park, London and the music scene” if they are forced to close after the Goodman Restaurant Group, operators of the upmarket Burger and Lobster chain, bought the lease to create a new bar.

The Silver Bullet, which has a 4am licence every night, has hosted more than 2,000 live music events over the past six years and every week there is a mix of blues, jazz, hip-hop, rock and reggae.

Events manager Hayley Squires told the Tribune: “We’ve put our blood, sweat and tears into this place. We’re in a great location. We are profitable and with the 24-hour tube coming in we could expand even further. This is a buzzing cultural hub and we are helping to expand music scenes.”

The Silver Bullet say Goodman are “not welcome in the area” amid wider fears it is losing its character due to gentrification.

But Goodman operations director David Strauss told the Tribune he did not want to create something “completely gentrified.”

Mr Strauss, who lives in Manor House, added: “The last thing I want to do is open a craft beer place or somewhere to get a latte.

“I’m a Heiniken drinker and I get my fish and chips from the Quality Fish Bar. I’ve been drinking in Finsbury Park since 1983 and I get upset when places I go to close.

“I am genuinely upset if The Silver Bullet closes for the people that work there.”

The campaign comes as a surprise to Mr Strauss who said the bar had been for sale online for two years from owners Enterprise Inns. Staff only found out the news on Friday.

Mr Strauss accepted that Goodman, which operates steak houses, Zelman Meats and Beast, were “part of the problem” of gentrifi­cation and driving up rents in places like Soho, but said he simply saw The Silver Bullet for sale online, put in an offer and won the bid for not “a tremendous amount of money”.

He said Goodman were “not as bad” as people were making them out to be and insisted that they are working on diverse projects like a community restaurant in Tottenham.

The office of London Mayor Sadiq Khan has already been in touch with The Silver Bullet to see whether they can help. Mr Khan made a commitment to do more to support the capital’s struggling grassroots music scene during his election campaign.

London has lost more than a third of its live music venues in the past seven years.

Mark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venue Trust, said: “Places like this are vital to new and emerging artists – it is exactly the kind of venue we need in London.”

Mr Strauss said the new bar would keep the existing stage and would feature some live music but did not have the “expertise” to do so seven nights a week.

The Silver Bullet have set up a petition – which has so far been signed by more than 2,000 people – and a crowdfunding campaign. They want Goodman to reconsider their position and, if they raise enough cash, plan to buy the lease back and run it as a not-for-profit venue.

A statement from the venue added: “This is not just about corporate greed, it’s about closing down the meeting places of people with ideas, intelligence, diversity and non-conformist attitudes. DIY music venues are about non-conformity. They’re for passion, for culture, for art, and for good times. And for that, we shouldn’t stop fighting.”