A couple have turned their living room into one of Britain’s smallest pubs.
Hazel and Andrew Smith spent £50,000 converting the front room of their 18th-century townhouse in Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, into a micro-pub.
The four-bedroom house can now welcome up to 20 punters to drink a mix of craft ales and ciders.
The pub, named J Maverick and Co, measures 11ft by 13ft and has a square footage of 143ft.
That means it is only marginally larger than Britain’s smallest pub, The Nutshell in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, which has a square footage of 105ft.
Mr and Mrs Smith’s pub has one table for six and a window seat and is full to capacity most nights.
“I think the charm of the place is that it is so small, it encourages conversation and is the very definition of a public house,” said Mrs Smith, 53.
“As there’s only one table people talk to each other and nobody really sits on their phones. It has a capacity of about 20 people – there’s only room for one table of six and a window seat.”
She added: “It is genuinely like having people into your house. We haven’t got a big commute to work either.”
Mrs Smith quit her job in the travel industry to run the pub full time.
“We have six taps – four kegs and two casks – as well as around 1,000 cans in the fridge, which is converted from a Victorian bookshelf,” she said. “We mainly use local breweries in Gloucester, Bewdley, Tenbury Wells and the Wye Valley. We also have Jeremy Clarkson’s cider here, Hawkstone Cider.
“It’s decorated like an old Victorian pub. A lot of real-ale places are very industrial, but that wasn’t befitting of such a historic house.
“Our grandson’s middle name is Maverick, so it is named after him. Who knows, one day he might inherit it.”
Mr Smith, who runs a courier firm, said the pub was “essentially just our front room”.
“We keep being told we’re definitely the smallest in the Midlands or the smallest in Worcestershire,” he said. “I think there may be a smaller one up north in a phone box – but we must be among the smallest in the country as it’s essentially just our front room.”
Michael Dalglish, a customer, said the pub was a “bit of a squeeze” but was a welcome addition to the high street.
“The ales are great, the owners are great,” he said. “It’s a charming little place and I hope they are here for years to come. I can’t imagine there’s many pubs in the UK smaller than this. It’s a bit of a squeeze but it adds to its appeal.”
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