Onwards and upwards

So far I've concentrated on the ground floor redevelopment, but now it's time to talk a bit about the upstairs changes.

The public toilets for the pub were at the western end of the upper storey. You then came to the front door of the manager's flat, which spanned the middle of the floor. Beyond that there was the pub's kitchen, a storage room and a function room.

I like the function room, except for the carpet. The panelling is warm without being oppressive, and the bookcase is wonderful if, like me, you love books. The fireplace isn't functioning, but it has a handsome surround with inset tiles.

Here are a couple of pictures so you can see what I mean. Unfortunately I didn't snap the bookcase, which is opposite the door.

Last week I met one of the gentlemen who installed the long table. The extension leaves drop on once the frame has been opened out with a crank handle. One of the delights of this whole exercise has been that we've met a lot of people with a connection to The Globe, including a past landlord, the descendants of a Victorian landlord, and a retired gentleman who helped with some building there when he had just left school. We'd be very pleased to hear from anyone who has a story to tell about The Globe.

In the rebuild, the function room remains intact, though we plan to replace the large table with more flexible separate rectangular tables. The manager's flat is being enlarged by including the area of the two public toilets and then being divided into two, so we shall have a front flat and a back flat, each of them one-bedroomed. There is no car parking with them, but we hope they would be suitable for retired people who are mobile enough to get upstairs, or perhaps younger people who don't need a car.

Our plan is to clear the upper storey now, so all required demolition has been done before any building takes place. The next step is to complete the ground floor and rewire the flats, then we'll carry out any building, with the finishing of the flats done after the pharmacy is open so as not to delay that.

The creation of flats was one of the reasons the council gave for approving the application. They are very keen to encourage people living in the city centre, and we're delighted to play our part in making that happen. On my travels around the country one of the main sources of jealousy I encounter is that we can walk to work in around ten minutes, and I should probably do it more often.