Two brothers teamed up to create a community hub, a lifeline for many - and a place for a great pint

In the Pennfields area of Wolverhampton, the former HSBC bank building on Birches Barn Road had been consigned to that fate, to rotting away and being unused, but suddenly received a whole new lease of life in May 2018 when it was bought by two brothers with a vision.

Mark and Steve Wright bought the building and spent time and money converting it into The Starting Gate, a micropub which has become a thriving community hub and a safe place for anyone and everyone.

Steve Wright said he and his brother had come together following the death of their father in 2017 and started talking about future plans when the idea of the pub came up.

He said: "Mark has worked in pubs and clubs and managed casinos of cruise ships for years and came back when we lost our father and started running Penn Bowling Club up the road.

"We were having a chat one day with a few pints of ale and he knows how to run a pub and a bar, so I suggested that we chuck in some money and look around somewhere for somewhere we could turn into a micropub.

"We were looking around and found the empty bank, so had a look around, saw the spiral staircase at the back and thought it would be ideal as we'd looked at little bookmakers where you can go really small with the micropub."

After buying the building, Steve and Mark began the work to refurbish the building and turn it into a pub, with Steve saying it had taken four months and thousands of pounds to convert it into a bar.

The interior still shows the signs of the building's former life, with the heavy door and the bar, which still looks like the counters from the bank, and a telling area which never got removed when the renovations were being done.

After opening, it was Mark Wright who had continued running the pub while Steve was off working as a national sales manager for Assa Abloy selling mini-bars and safes to hotels, but a change in circumstances during the Covid-19 pandemic brought Steve back in as the person in charge.

He said: "Covid hit and that was a struggle and when we came out of the other end of it two years ago, Mark told me he couldn't make this work and didn't think he'd be able to pay off the loan from the Government as the turnover was about £2,700 a week.

"He said he didn't know what to do and I said I'd take it over, so he's still a partner, but isn't part of the running anymore and I make all the decisions about the pub, which has seen it do more than £6,000 a week and has been around £5,500 for the last 12 months, so we're knocking it out of the park."

Steve and assistant manager Charlotte McLachlan said the magic of the place had been the community that had developed inside it, with people saying that it was a place that kept them going and was welcoming to anyone who came in.

Steve said: "There's an older guy who lost his wife and had never been in here before but, after his daughter brought him in, he'll come here every day.

"It's the definition of a community hub because people come in here and it doesn't matter who you are, you'll be welcomed by the regulars and they'll find a space on a table for you."

Charlotte said: "We've had quite a few women come in here and said they feel incredibly safe in coming in here alone, which for me is a massive compliment.

"It's generally somewhere that people feel they can have a safe space and sit yourself away, such as a woman who came in here and has since made a couple of friends and said she didn't know she'd have such a fantastic time here and will be coming back soon."

With any pub, the warm welcome is one thing, but the beer is another and Steve said the four handpulls are responsible for around 70 per cent of the pub's turnover, with all of the beer picked by Steve and the pub a freehold.

He said: "The one thing we said when we opened was that we will never be tied to a brewery and we've bought a few things off of wholesalers, which I really hate as it means somebody else is having the chunk of my profits.

"I'll drive all over and go as far as North Yorkshire and Bristol to bring beers back and stuff that you will never normally see.

"We will have beers like Butty Bach and XXX and Cheltenham Gold as we know those will sell and we'll always have a couple of medium beers and at least one stronger beer on tap."

For lager and cider drinkers, there are also drinks such as San Miguel and Stowford Press, while Wye Valley Stout is also very popular, complemented by a cheese cob, pickled egg or one of the other snacks behind the bar.

The community hub feeling of the pub extends itself to events, with regular quizzes and cribbage nights, as well as two bowls team and a vinyl night, and Steve said the pub was special because of the people who called it home.

He said: "I only took this place on as Mark said he wanted to close it and I decided to keep it going, so we had 100 people who came in and who I never knew, but I know all of them now and I think we've offered them a real lifeline.

"We make a profit here as well and that's down to the graft and hard work from all the fantastic staff here and I love all the girls behind the bar as they are all smiling and friendly and they and the regulars just make this a great place to be."