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SO HOW COME THE GRAPES

In this series of blog post from Ellie of The Grapes, you can follow their journey as they transform the pub over the coming months. In this blog she discusses why they chose The Grapes.

It turned out my husband John was secretly on the hunt for a micropub when he came home one day and told me about this fantastic pub in Bath he had come across.

He didn’t really think that more about it but a couple of days later I dragged him off to take another look but the agents warned us that having stood empty for eighteen months, work was just about to start upstairs to turn it into a House of Multiple Occupation (HMO) and the pub had been earmarked by KFC.

Boarded up, unloved and completely empty (apparently the old bar had been rotting from the ground up), the owners had let it out for decades to pub companies and breweries that had never invested in it and they weren’t about to make the same mistake again. This made it a bit of a hard sell though owing to the state of the building and the Grade II listed status……until we came along and fell in love with it.

Seven months later, a lot of negotiation and detailing to get the specifications for the upper floors changed and we now have the keys and are hoping to open The Grapes this Summer (2019) in time for the busy tourist season.

It won’t be all about tourists though. As a Free House without tie, we aim to make this a great bar for the local community that appeals to locals wanting some great drinks, honest food and some live entertainment. We’re so excited to be part of the local music scene, though this will kick off properly when we get the money to carry out work to open up the back of the pub….but first we have to get the doors open and trading.