A pint-sized pub and its more spacious neighbour will join forces as a Little and Large double act next week to present a real ale and beer festival designed to promote Hull’s Theatre Quarter location as a destination for great food and drink.

The Hop & Vine in Albion Street, Hull, and the New Clarence round the corner in Charles Street have collaborated for three festivals in the last two years, winning the innovative marketing category at the HullBID Awards in 2022. This time respective licensees Tony Garrett and Ian Ibbetson will also highlight some of the nearby restaurants, and in doing so will add the new dimension of international beers. Tony, whose Hop & Vine is a compact basement bar with a two-seater beer garden, said: “If you’re enjoying a beer festival you need good food to soak up the liquid – and if you’re having a nice meal, you need the liquid to wash it down!” Ian added: “Food is a big part of what we offer at The New Clarence and we’ll have all sorts of delights available during the festival but we also want to direct people to some of the great restaurants in this part of the city and encourage people to support the Theatre Quarter as a whole.” The Hull Theatre Quarter Beer Festival will take place from Thursday 23 March until Sunday 26 March and will again be led by Tony and Ian. At the Hop & Vine, Tony plans to offer eight real ales all from Derbyshire and as many as 20 ciders and perries. Tony said: “Last time I did a Shropshire selection because that’s where I’m from. It gave people a chance to try some beers that you don’t often see up this way. It worked really well and it made sure we were both doing something different.” Ian will focus on brews from Yorkshire and will make the most of his space to offer a food menu featuring his famous Chilli Devil sauces as well as a programme of live music. He said: “We’ll have maybe 40 beers over the weekend, many of them from new breweries, small independent producers. Yorkshire has over 100 of them and some are very tiny. “We’ve found in previous years that some visitors go round with a pen and paper, crossing beers off their list as they aim to try them all during the festival. The big difference between us and most other beer festivals is that we bring trade into the pubs and they take trade out of them.” The pair will also raise awareness of other beer options on their doorstep at the Old English Gentleman and Brew, a café specialising in coffee, tea and beer. Among the restaurants which are being recommended are The Omelette, Tanyalak for Thai Food, Blue Bay Mediterranean for Greek or Italian, Yinjibar for Chinese and Lena’s Ukrainian Kitchen. Most of them offer beer and other drinks from their home countries which are exclusive in the city centre. Lena Sutherland, who opened her Ukrainian Kitchen last year in the former Operetta Italian restaurant in Bond Street, said: “We will have our usual menu over the weekend as well as Ukrainian beer and vodka. We’ll also have live music on the Saturday with Ukrainian and British singers. “As a result of the festival I have already made two new friends and I hope we can all work together with the other bars and restaurants to show people the fantastic food and drink destinations we have in this part of the city centre.” Kathryn Shillito, HullBID Executive Director, said: “The Hull Theatre Quarter Beer Festival was recognised at our awards for its innovation and now Tony and Ian are showing sustainability with a fourth event, and one which also embraces other hospitality businesses in the area. “There’s a great variety of food and drink which will hopefully pull in the crowds during the festival and keep them coming back for other events in the city centre.”

Work is due to start on site at Riverhead in Grimsby next week (Monday 20 March) to create a new open space in the centre of town. Since the hoardings went up, the main contractors have been secured, and the build programme finalised. Additionally, work has been going on behind the hoardings to remove old trees, clear out old pipework and cables, and prepare the site for the start of the works. In the coming months, the existing square will be completely re-remodelled, funded as one of the projects included in the Town Deal, the money for which was secured in 2020 and is ringfenced for specific projects. The scheme will see the existing area changed to incorporate a lot more green-space and planting, as well as providing new seating, lighting, security and a flexible event space with improved infrastructure to support future events and activities. There will also be space for outdoor café seating at the entrance to Freshney Place. Cllr Philip Jackson, leader of the Council, said: “This scheme will create a much more pleasant area for our residents and businesses and encourage more people to use the town centre. It’s part of our wider town centre ambitions that will also see, subject to planning permission, the western end of Freshney Place remodelled to introduce more leisure activities to the area. “It’s vital for our borough that we look at Grimsby Town Centre with a real determination to attract families and people of all ages, so we can bring vibrancy back and make it a place where people want to visit at all times of the day.” The new designs, approved at the Council’s Cabinet meeting in November, were drawn up by Arup Landscape Design, and incorporated input from local people, including children and young people, from recent consultations and engagement, in terms of what they want to see in the area. The works on Riverhead are being managed by Equans on behalf of the Council and will hopefully be complete by the end of the year.

Research that will produce a ‘toolkit’ to help rural pub owners diversify their income through the provision of co-working spaces has begun, thanks to funding from the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise. A team of researchers at the University of Lincoln and Northumbria University will look at ways for rural pub owners to utilise post-pandemic ways of working, assessing the validity of co-working spaces in pubs as a new business model for income diversification. The team will produce a report outlining the potential for rural pubs to offer a place for home workers looking to adopt a suitable working space outside of the traditional office and, in turn, identify opportunities to support the maintenance, growth and resilience of rural pubs nationwide. They will work closely with local communities throughout the UK to gather information from landlords, co-workers and representatives from wider local communities. Jane Deville, Research Fellow at the University of Lincoln, said: “We know that village pubs are a vital part of rural life and the Covid 19 pandemic led to many shutting down. At the same time, there are now many more people working remotely from home who need suitable spaces to work alongside others. “Our research will explore whether there’s a business opportunity for rural pubs to innovate and offer co-working spaces as part of their service. Ultimately, we hope we can develop a pub ‘toolkit’ for rural pub owners, offering advice on setting up co-working spaces to help them diversify their income and ensure they are more resilient.” Professor Jeremy Phillipson, said: “The rural economy is in a state of flux as it grapples with changes in working practices accelerated by the pandemic and the stark challenges of the cost-of-doing-nothing crisis. “These projects will shed important light on how these contemporary issues are affecting rural enterprise, giving valuable insights that will help inform future policymaking and support for rural businesses.” The toolkit will be available to rural pub owners, free of charge, from this summer.