PHOTOS: Popular Morecambe pub reopens after £400,000 revamp into craft ale bar

Saturday, 27 April 2024 08:58

By Greg Lambert @greglam72

Pete Stephenson, Steph Howard, Casey Knowles and Liv Cooper from The Bath Tap in Morecambe

We have had a peek inside a popular Morecambe pub following its £400,000 revamp into a craft ale bar with rooms.

The Bath Hotel will reopen today (Saturday April 27) as The Bath Tap craft bar, with 11 newly-refurbished rooms on the extended upper floors for visitors to Morecambe.

The investment in the Northumberland Street pub, just off the Promenade, has been made by co-owners the Howard and Robinson families.

Steph Howard, co-owner, said: "We're reopening as The Bath Taps, serving cask ales and we will also have 11 luxury bedrooms upstairs.

LISTEN to Steph Howard and Pete Stepenson talking about the reopening of The Bath

"It is quite a huge investment, we've invested over £400,000 to bring it back to its art deco prime, and we've kept that art deco theme running throughout the building and the bedrooms.

"We've gone back to bare brick, we've kept it clean and tidy, gone away from the heavy rock side. It's now cask ales, everybody's welcome, and we'll be serving chowder and coffee. We hope to welcome everybody into the building.

"The Bath is an iconic pub within Morecambe and it's always been close to my heart and a lot of my friends' hearts. We just felt we had to do something with it. The potential to extend, and actually offer luxury accommodation within Morecambe. With the Eden Project coming up, it's going to work out well, I hope."

Here is The Bath during the refurbishment over the past few months.

And how it looks now.

Here is how the inside of the bar looks following the refurb.

And one of the newly-refurbished rooms.

Pete Stephenson from Morecambe Bay Chowder Co (pictured below) has joined forces with the Howard and Robinson families to provide food at The Bath Taps.

Mr Stephenson specialises in chowder, a creamy fishy soup, usually sold from a travelling stall which has a huge following across the Lancaster and Morecambe area. His company was formed in 2021 aiming to "serve coastal comfort food celebrating the produce of Morecambe Bay".

He will be serving food from the kitchen at The Bath from Friday, May 3, while continuing his mobile service around the district.

"We're tremendously excited and honoured to be cooking and serving from this exciting location in Morecambe," he said.

"We know how much it means to the people of Morecambe and we hope our customers really enjoy the experience here. It's very very exciting."

Here is Pete with The Bath Tap staff Liv Cooper and Casey Knowles.

The Bath Hotel has a lengthy history in the town stretching back to the 19th century.

It was originally at 5 Northumberland Street, but in the 1930s was rebuilt at number 7 as the building that stands there today.

An old sign from days gone by, which has been returned to the pub, will provide a link to The Bath's historic past.

It ended up in a skip during a refurbishment of the premises in the '90s, and has been at the nearby Winter Gardens theatre for the past 30 years.

"They've kindly given it back to us so we have it on the wall at The Bath," said Mr Howard.

The old sign is pictured below.

The Bath was previously a rock, blues and biker-themed pub prior to its closure for refurbishment in summer 2023.

Mr Howard said the plan was to continue live music at The Bath, only with varied kinds of music rather than specialising in the rock and blues genre. He said the pub will be involved in this year's Morecambe Music Festival in July.

Work began on the refurbishment of The Bath in 2023, but was delayed after a vandal scaled the scaffolding outside the premises and put a hosepipe into the building, causing between £10,000 and £20,000 worth of flood damage. This meant the owners had to spend more than anticipated on the work.

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