A NEW pub landlord says he is looking forward to welcoming customers inside his newly refurbished pub when coronavirus restrictions are lifted further on Monday.

Ashley Walton is the leaseholder of the Berkeley Arms pub in St John’s, Worcester, which he took over in July this year.

The previous owner had run the pub for 14 years but retired, allowing Ashley to take the reins with his mum Beverley and reinvent the community pub - although he has been frustrated at the stop-start nature of business due to the lockdown. From Monday, pubs will be allowed to open indoors again.

He said: “We took over at the end of July, and we had two weeks to get everything ready. We opened in August, but obviously had to close again because of Covid, but during the lockdown from January to April we did four months of refurbishing, including the garden and the car park. So there’s electric heating out there now, and we’ve redecorated the pub inside and out. Before, the clientele were generally older, but since we’ve taken over it’s completely changed; we get a lot of families in with kids on the weekends, as well as a younger audience, people in their 40s and the older generation as well. There’s a good variety and everyone is friendly and gets along with each other." Ashley, 29, re-opened the pub to customers outdoors last month, although he says it’s been difficult to begin his new venture during the pandemic.

“I’ve been the manager of different pubs previously, but I thought now it’s time to be my own boss and take the next step.Unfortunately since taking over, with the lockdown it’s been very stop-start. Everytime we’ve opened it’s gone really well but then all of a sudden we’ve had to close. It’s been very frustrating and tough, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel now, and in a way the lockdown has helped us to get where we want to be with the refurbishment. There’s still some work to be done but we’ve had the time to get most of it done and that’s been the benefit of lockdown.”

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