Welcome to our moving blog

That isn't "moving" as in emotional. It's "moving" as in starting off on one side of the road and ending up on the other.

Reeds has been at 10 Frances Street since Bert Reed came back from the war and set up his own business. Bert and Vi retired in May 1973, when Jim Catterall took over, and Gillian and Graham Brack came in September 1985, so we've been here over 25 years.

The pharmacy is cramped now, and the dispensary staff have very little room to move. It's also difficult to give people the privacy that we would like, though we have had a small consultation room for some time.

We tried to plan a refurbishment, but we came up against two problems. We can't move the outside walls, and there's a thick old granite wall across the middle of the shop that we can't move either. Whatever we do, we can't gain square footage.

When the chance to buy The Globe opposite us came up in May 2010, we started negotiating, and we completed the deal on 11th August, 2010. This blog looks at the process of turning a 19th century listed building from a pub into a pharmacy and coffee shop.

Hold on - a coffee shop?

There was a restaurant area in the pub, with a kitchen upstairs. It seemed a shame not to use them. There are lots of coffee shops in the city, but not many with good access for the disabled. Our customers have always liked the fact that we had chairs for them. Now they will be able to have a sit down and a cuppa in the same place.

Of course, we know nothing about running a coffee shop. We've visited plenty, but we have enough to do looking after people's health needs, so we had to find someone to run the coffee shop. But that's another story.