An award-winning community pub in Hulme has been opening up its upstairs rooms for locals and families to keep warm in the face of rising energy bills. The Old Abbey Taphouse refurbed what was previously the pub’s meeting room, and has fitted it out with sofas and a projector, turning it into a ‘warm bank’.
It’s open a few nights a week, and anyone is welcome to come and keep warm.
“We launched it in December,” landlady Rachele Evaroa said. “We just realised that there were people sitting at home, and they’re cold. Ours is different [to other warm banks] as we’re open in the evenings, and a lot of them are people’s reception areas, so just open 9 to 5. We’ve turned it into a proper sitting room with games.
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“We don’t means test anyone, anyone can access it, it’s up to people if they want to say they’re vulnerable. So some people are coming along and supporting it, and putting a bit of money into it, and some people are coming because they need it.
“It used to be our meeting room, and one of our members of staff painted it and put sofas in, and we have a projector and a Fire Stick, there are games. And when people book it out, we give them a free meal without telling them. They get to spend all evening up there, and it’s really warm.
“We really work with the people who are on our doorstep, so it’s really important to me that local people get the first access. We’ve always been like this, from the day we opened.”
The pub, which is the last remaining building on what used to be the Greenhays estate, weighed in to help the community during lockdown too, providing free food and meals to local people.
It delivered 3000 meals to people in the area, as well as giving free ‘restaurant style’ nights out for locals who couldn’t afford to go out during the Eat Out To Help Out scheme. Last year, the pub was named Community Pub of the Year by the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA).
It also runs a ‘pay as you feel’ Sunday roast once a month, where pub-goers can pay what they can afford for lunch.
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