‘Vintage’ craft pub with ‘quirky twist’ set to open this year in Daventry town centre

A “vintage” craft pub with a “quirky twist” is set to open this year in the heart of Daventry.

A husband and wife from Lutterworth recently signed the lease for the Grade II listed building in Sheaf Street formerly occupied by the Evergreen Art Cafe.

Richard Clifford and Nikki Squires have applied for permission to convert the art gallery into a “traditional micropub-style ale house type of establishment” called The Ale Pole.

Nikki said: “Daventry intrigued us. We really like the feel of it. Sheaf Street is a really beautiful street.

“I think for us, it’s about creating a warm and friendly community venue. We very much want to know our patrons. We want to be part of the community. We’re really quite passionate about that aspect.”

Nikki, 47, has been a senior teacher at a secondary school in the Leicestershire area for more than 25 years. She plans to “take the leap” and quit teaching once “the business is established” and can support the two of them.

“Richard and I both love teaching. It’s a very demanding job, and as we got a little bit older, we just wanted a better work-life balance. I know working in a pub is very hard work, but with your own business, you're in control a little bit more.

“The political landscape of education can sometimes be a little complicated to navigate. As with many public sector services, it’s been misunderstood and underfunded for quite a long time, and I think we just felt like we'd given it our all and done our time. It was just time to do something a bit different,” said Nikki.

After quitting his job as a teacher 14 months ago, Nikki’s husband, Richard, started working at a Lutterworth-based pub called Real Ale Classroom, which is run by "really good friends." Real Ale Classroom is one of the three micropubs in Leicestershire owned by former teachers Ian Martin and Steve Tabbernor.

“I guess because we’ve seen their journey, if we were going to do something, now was the time to do it.

"They’ve helped us on our journey and given us lots of good advice, which has been absolutely fantastic; we could not have done it without them,” said Nikki.

In September 2022, the husband and wife set out to find a property.

“Because we are going to model our business on a traditional micropub-style ale house type of establishment rather than your traditional town pub, we were looking for a property to redevelop ourselves.

“We didn’t want to be like the traditional pub. Over the last few years, we both just started to get an interest in craft beer, which has become really popular. We decided a micro-style pub would be something we would be interested in doing,” said Nikki.

The popular art gallery, Evergreen Art Cafe, was listed for lease on Rightmove after closing over the summer. The couple spoke with the landlord in August 2023 about renting the property.

“It’s a great Grade II listed building, and with that, we feel, comes a massive responsibility.

We want to decorate the pub with a vintage feel to it so it is kind of sympathetic to its Georgian roots but with a bit of a quirky twist,” said Nikki.

Nikki wants to furnish the pub with "vintage, antique, reclaimed, and repurposed" items and paint it in "deep colours."

“We want people to walk in and feel like it has always been there,” said Nikki.

There are going to be two stages to the rebuilding process. As part of phase one, the couple intends to renovate the ground floor and start trading. The renovations on the second floor are set to take place in the next stage. Nikki has envisioned a "cocktail-style lounge" or "Georgian sitting room" with velvet seats and "warm colours."

“The lounge will be a Jane Austen meets The National Trust type of thing,” said Nikki.

The Ale Pole would serve a range of craft beers from around the country, as well as traditional cider, wine, regional spirits, cocktails, non-alcoholic beverages, coffee, and “homemade bar snacks." In the future, the kitchen could be renovated to provide more food options while taking the residents' preferences into account.

“Craft beer is a very popular and increasingly popular style of beer, and it can be quite male-dominated at the moment. There is a beer for everybody. I was not a massive beer drinker until I found craft beer,” said Nikki.

Nikki intends to host a variety of events at the location, including weekly quizzes, a book club, and gatherings with nearby breweries where anyone interested in craft beer could come sample and learn more about the beverages.

A consultation on the scheme is currently underway, with West Northamptonshire Council planning officers set to decide on the application in the coming weeks.

The couple would plan to hire one full-time employee and three part-time workers at first, with the possibility of adding two or three more when a "proposed food offering" would emerge.

The suggested hours of operation for the pub are 4pm until 10.30pm on Monday through Thursday, 12pm until 11pm on Friday and Saturday, and 1pm until 8pm on Sunday. Deliveries to the pub would be scheduled between ‘office hours’ of 9am and 5pm.

Find out what happened with the popular art gallery, Evergreen Art Cafe, on our website.