The Bossche middle class reacted with shock to the sudden death of Paul Leeyen, the owner of Proeflokaal ‘t Paultje and the English pub Thornbridge. Leeyen passed away unexpectedly last Friday while on holiday in Gran Canaria.
Leeyen was born in 1988 in Biezenmortel and came into contact with the Bossche nightlife during his secondary school days in Vught. That didn’t let him go and in 2012 he started his first pub in the Lepelstraat, which became ‘t Paultje. Thornbridge on Koninginnelaan was added later.
His favorite spot was on a corner at the bar, with a beer in front of him. “Then you don’t have a child with me,” he wrote in the De Stad Van in 2020 section in the Brabants Dagblad. “There is no city in the world that breathes more at home than Den Bosch,” he said.
Expressions of support are already pouring in on social media. It is not known how Leeyen could die so suddenly.