Take a Look Inside Athelstan Pub Following £420,00 Makeover
- Guild Secretary
- Nov 24
- 4 min read
The Athelstan Arms on Cranleigh Road in Bournemouth reopened on Thursday 30th October, following a major investment of over £420,000. The pub is part of Proper Pubs, the award-winning community wet led operator division of Admiral Taverns, which operates more than 220 pubs across England, Scotland and Wales.
Inside, The Athelstan underwent a complete transformation including all new fixtures, fittings, flooring, and furniture to give the pub a fresh new lease of life. The interior also benefitted from a revitalised, nature-inspired colour scheme – mixing earthy paint colours and bold patterned wallpapers – that seamlessly blends modernity with tradition. In addition, customers can now enjoy a dedicated sports zone featuring a brand-new pool table, a feature darts wall and four state of the art television screens complete with Sky Sports, TNT and horse racing channels.
Outside, The Athelstan’s beer garden has been significantly expanded to seat up to 150 people, offering ample space for community events throughout the year, and comes complete with a new terraced area along with atmospheric festoon lighting. For special occasions, the outdoor area can accommodate a pop-up bar to make sure guests can order drinks as quickly and efficiently as possible. To complete the pub’s brand-new look, it has also been fitted with brand new lighting and signage to welcome visitors.
The pub officially reopened to the community on Thursday 30th October and celebrated by hosting a live singer that sang songs from the 80’s/90’s. The next evening was Halloween themed, with a party DJ performing, themed drinks on offer and Halloween fancy dress. This was followed by a performance from SKA band, The Accelerators, on Saturday evening.
The Athelstan Arms offers a wide range of drinks promotions, including Wine Wednesday, where customers can get £2 off a bottle, Fizz Friday, offering customers a bottle of fizz for £10, along with cocktails, bottle and shot deals throughout the week.
Matt England, operator of The Athelstan Arms, said: “It’s been a fantastic journey watching The Athelstan’s transformation come to life over the past few months. The pub looks fantastic, and it was a pleasure to welcome our customers, both old and new, back through the doors last week.
The entire team, including everyone at Proper Pubs, has truly gone the extra mile to get the pub to where it is now and I couldn’t be more grateful for all the support.”
On top of the fantastic drink's selection, Matt looks forward to hosting a busy schedule of regular entertainment including live acoustic evenings on Friday’s and DJs playing on Saturdays. Going forward, he hopes to introduce regular mid-week quiz nights for customers looking to enjoy a bit of friendly competition. On weekends, the pub will see the return of pub games, raffles and a popular meat draw. On top of this, the pub hopes to have a darts and pool team set up soon.
In addition, the operator is committed to supporting an array of important charities and local initiatives close to his heart. To start with, he will be collecting food to donate to the local foodbank and raising money to have a lifesaving defibrillator installed at the pub.
Matt Gurney, Operations Director for Proper Pubs, said: “I’m delighted to see how well the refurbishment at The Athelstan Arms has turned out and I am delighted that the opening night was such a great success. It’s such a brilliant community pub with so much to offer and I’m confident that Matt will be able to unlock its full potential as a result of this incredible investment.
On behalf of myself and the Proper Pubs team, we wish Matt all the best for the future”.
Proper Pubs is always looking for ways to support its communities through an annual schedule of events and fundraising initiatives and in March 2024, it was crowned Community Pub Operator at the Publican Awards. Most recently, the Group collected over 20,000 Easter Eggs to donate to communities in need and raised nearly £100,000 in just three months for various local charities across the UK. Last year, Proper Pubs also successfully donated enough food to local foodbanks across the UK to feed 1,300 people for a week and has also been recognised UK-wide defibrillator installation campaign which has already saved 11 lives.
Currently, operators across Proper Pubs’ estate are collecting as many selection boxes as possible to donate to local charities and communities in need this Christmas, as well as fundraising for Admiral Taverns’ charity partner, Claire House Hospice.
The Athelstan Arms, Cranleigh Road, Bournemouth BH6 5JZ, UK
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Admiral Taverns (“Admiral”) is the UK’s number one community pub group. Headquartered in Chester; the Group operates a national estate of c.1,420 predominantly wet-led community pubs. Admiral’s unique operational approach has earnt industry recognition with the Group winning Best Community Pub Operator at the 2024 Publican Awards, whilst also being shortlisted for Best Partnership Pub Company (501+ Sites). In 2019, 2016 and 2013, Admiral Taverns won Best Leased and Tenanted Pub Company at the Publican Awards and ranked highly commended as Best Community Pub Operator in 2017. The Group has also been consistently highly rated by licensees in the industry’s independent annual Tenant Track survey, exceeding the scores of all its national peers.
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