Otley Pub Club are raising a glass to the successful re-opening of Otley’s Victorian Hotel by Kirkstall Brewery and Brudenell Social Club. The Black Horse bar has been painstakingly and beautifully refurbished to reflect the building’s Victorian splendour and is now open seven days a week for excellent quality food and drinks including, of course, a big range of beers (cask, craft and bottles) from the award-winning Kirkstall Brewery as well as guest beers, fine wines, spirits, soft drinks and barista made coffee.
The partnership of Kirkstall and Brudenell bought the Black Horse from Enterprise Inns and have invested a considerable sum on the building already, making the Black Horse a stunning pub and great experience. Steve Holt, owner and founder of Kirkstall Brewery has a particular passion for Victorian buildings and interiors and the team have carried out a stunning refurbishment, restoring key features of the building and making more of the space in the pub and dining area as well as installing high quality furniture and fittings, chandeliers and Victorian mirrors to give the Black Horse a Victorian yet contemporary feel.
Food is now being served every day, Monday to Saturday 12 noon to 9pm and Sunday 12-5pm with an already hugely popular Sunday lunch on offer, as well as lunch, light bites and stone-fired pizzas. The upstairs function room is also now refurbished and available for function and conference hire and for live music – something that legendary music promoter Nathan Clark from the famous Brudenell Social Club will oversee.
The next phase in investment is on the Black Horse’s 9 bedrooms, with the Hotel set to become a key feature in Otley’s tourist offer, followed by converting the outside stables area to an outside bar and live music venue, boosting Otley’s live music scene. The Brudenell Social Club, in Hyde Park, Leeds, is one of the North of England’s best and most popular small live music venues attracting national and international acts as well as up and coming local musical talent so there is huge excitement about this phase of the project too.
Greg Mulholland, President of Otley Pub Club said:
“Otley Pub Club were delighted to join Steve and some of the team at the Black Horse to toast the re-opening and stunning refurbishment of this iconic Victorian coaching inn. The Black Horse is now a destination pub and the décor is magnificent, thanks to the investment, hard work and attention to detail by the team who have restored it so superbly.
“Already local people have been hugely positive about the pub, the food and of course the beer! We look forward to the next phases of investment, the hotel and the live music venue and will continue to support Kirkstall and Brudenell in their work making the most of this important hotel and venue”.
Eddie Conneely, Membership Secretary of Otley Pub Club added:
“It is great to have the Black Horse as the wonderful inn it always could have been, thanks to the beautiful refurbishment by Kirkstall Brewery and the Brudenell Social Club. The food offer as well as the beer and other drinks are excellent and it’s already popular with people of all ages with dogs and children welcome!
“It’s also hugely positive that they are investing in the hotel rooms too, as they are vitally important to tourism in the town, something that the Council, Chamber of Trade and Otley Bid have been doing a great job boosting. It’s also very exciting that the Black Horse will add to Otley’s live music offering, so we look forward to the next phases of development”.
Steve Holt, founder and owner of Kirkstall Brewery said:
“We are delighted to be investing in Otley. It is such a vibrant town and the people have been extremely friendly and welcoming. We couldn’t have wished for a better reception.
“The refurbishment has been a challenging but pleasurable experience. We have taken great care to preserve and restore the original features of the interior. For example we have restored the damaged decorative plasterwork and ceilings in many of the rooms and exposed and bright back to life a hidden mosaic floor.
“We hope we have created an interior that reflects the magnificent exterior of the building by introducing complimentary lighting and decorative mirrors and furnishings”.
Nathan Clark from the Brudenell Social said:
“This is only the beginning. We now want to complete the work in the function room which we intend to make available not only for events but also as a space available for community use. There is still a lot to do at the rear of the building where we see great potential for staging events from music and film to food and craft related markets and exhibitions
“We also intend to get the hotel rooms up and running as soon as possible to provide quality but good value accommodation for visitors to the town. It is a really exciting time but we don’t want to rush in to these projects until we have had input and listened to local businesses and
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