Ring O’Bells reveals opening date

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The Ring O’Bells in West Kirby has announced it is taking bookings from 15 December.

The pub has been closed for almost four years, after Greene King called time on its ownership of the historic hostelry in January 2020.

Stange & Co bought the building later that year, but the pandemic stalled their plans to refurbish and reopen the pub, and work only started in earnest in May.

A statement on the Ring O’Bells website reads: “Having navigated a few hurdles including a global pandemic, we’re looking looking forward to throwing our doors open, and once again welcoming the patient folks of West Kirby and Wirral.

“Our hope is for the Ring O’Bells to become that great proper pub that everyone wishes they had on their doorstep, top-notch beer, quality wines, freshly made tasty food and some friendly familiar faces on both sides of the bar.”

The bar at the Ring O’Bells

They added: “In restoring the largely Victorian pub back to its former glory, we hope to try and make the most of its original features and interesting spaces, with real fires and plenty of old furniture to give the old place a lived-in cosy feel.

“To try and give the pub a greater connection to the garden along with a light and airy space for those ever too brief summer months, we’re adding a garden room which should overlook the restored gardens and the new terrace we’re creating in front of the pub.

“We look forward to you taking stepping through the doors and hopefully you’ll like what we’ve done with the place.”

Photographs on the Ring O’Bells Facebook page show work taking place installing the bar and kitchen.

A recruitment day held last month attracted over 200 applicants.

Pint pot history of The Ring O’Bells

  • Built in 1810 and believed to be located on the site of an earlier pub
  • The cellars are cut into the sandstone rock underneath
  • At one time the pub had a bowling green and tennis courts in the grounds
  • The lower part of the building used to be a snug, known as ‘Ernie’s Room’
  • It hit the headlines in 2003 when it became one of the country’s first non-smoking pubs

Photo credits: Stange & Co