Take a look inside city pub filled with curiosities and a charismatic landlord

I decided to take a look around the pub and meet the face that is often beaming at us from behind the bar. 

Once I got there I was met with a friendly smile as I perched on a chair by the window and 'P' put the kettle on to make some tea.

The pub is chaotic and full of heart, and I started to write down what I could see.

Mad Pierre, aka Colin Robinson glanced over at me, and with a smile, he said: "You're already writing, and I haven't even said a word." 

Meet Mad Pierre

When I asked him if he has any famous regulars, without missing a beat he said: "I'm famous, and I come here." 

But did name drop a couple of names like Dick Strawbridge, who presents Escape to the Chateau. 

Mad Pierre is known for his fashion sense

Although he said: "Ordinary people should be famous. People have and will do wonderful things in the community."

He added: "People turn up with vintage cars, I do get a biker crew called 'disturbed bike enthusiasts,' and they are a great bunch of blokes."  

And Mad Pierre is one of those wonderful people - veach Christmas Day he dons an apron and cooks a Christmas Dinner for lonely and elderly people.

Mad Pierre has been in the pub running the business for a long time and he revealed how his nickname stuck. 

"I started running my own pubs in 1994 and my business partner at the time was a chap called Q.

"I used to cook as well as other things, and I used to dress up as the mad chef from a newspaper comic called Bo Peep.

"The cartoon was about the French foreign legionnaire and they had a fictional character called Mad Pierre. 

"The chef was called Egon but Q was like, I won't call you Egon, I'll call you Mad Pierre. 

"He used to wear crazy shirts and a crazy floppy hat, and that stuck as do a lot of nicknames." 

A portrait of Mad P in the Chestnut Tree Inn
When asked whether he likes being called Mad Pierre, he chuckled and said: "I don't care what they call me as long as they don't call me late." 

 Some people also know Mad Pierre as Colin Robinson, who was born in 1956 to landlords of the New Inn pub in Pershore. 

The Pub has posters from old-school British television shows
P said: "I used to perform at the pub from when I was about three months old."

He says he used to keep everyone at the pub very entertained and said: "I used to spin on my bum at the bar, and they paid me with Guinness in my bottle." 

The stage is a centre piece of the Chestnut Tree Inn

Despite his parents running a pub, Mr Robinson set his sights on accountancy and hoped to pursue his dreams, but his plans were scrapped during the recession in the early 90s. 

Mad Pierre said: "I enjoyed doing accountancy but during the recession of the early '90s, I was applying for jobs with 600 applicants, and it was really hard at that time.

"I was getting fed up with the suit and tie every day.

"I did Morris dancing and playing in a folk band, and I was an elected member of the council in Malvern for a few years, and accounting held me back." 
 The always has a friendly face behind it
So at 38, P decided it was time for a career change. 

"So change of career, and now I've had over two dozen pubs since 1994.

"I've been doing it ever since. I get my old age pension this  year but I don't plan to retire."

Get to know the pub 

Over the past 11 years, P has built up a community that does a lot for charity and different organisations. 

The pub is best known for cooking lunches for people in need over Christmas and last year was no different. 

P said: "In 2021, I did about 35 lunches for the lonely and homeless. We should've done about 50, but 15 staff were off with Covid. 

An insight into the decoration 

The pub can feel like a nostalgic wealth of knowledge and is overflowing with books, posters and oil paintings.

P said: "I'm a hoarder basically, I think there are about 3000 books and approximately 100 oil paintings mainly painted by a Country Blues Singer called Will Khalim.

"There are thousands of LPs and similar CDs and thousands of VHS videos, thousands of DVDs, thousands of hats - loads of flags from all over the world." 

The Chestnut Tree Inn is packed with nostalgia

The Music

Once you walk in, you're mesmerised by posters of Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen, and the pub stage has been decorated with posters from pop culture across the decades. 

Music plays a huge part in P's life, and that is often demonstrated through the multiple mic nights he holds. 

The stage in The Chestnut Tree Inn

P said: "Music is quite important and makes people smile. I get some local musicians, I encourage youngsters to come and play and I also have some professionals."

He mentioned that for his 60th birthday, the pub was transformed into a music festival. P said: "My birthday week, I had live music every day of the week and BBQ like a music festival.
"We play a lot of music here like blues, rock, jazz, rockabilly all sorts, it's quite eclectic." 

The pub has a beer garden and people can listen to live music

The Worcester News and Mad Pierre 

Like most people, P has collated a series of newspaper cuttings when he's found himself in the headlines.

He says the first time he was mentioned in the news was probably in the early 90s. 

P said: "I went to a Hereford and Worcester game dressed in a crazy top hat and I can't remember the rest of the outfit. 

Mad Pierre has been featured in the paper a few times
He says he caught the eye of the media for playing 'Last Post' on a trumpet when Hereford scored and when Worcester scored he played 'Reveille.'