Take a seat Popular pub prepares to unveil new outdoor experience
APOPULAR pub and restaurant on the edge of Cheltenham is about to welcome people into a new outdoor drinking and dining area.
The House in the Tree pub attracts a loyal band of regular customers.
After recent attempts to expand fell foul of council officials, it is now proudly unveiling an eye-catching covered area near its beer garden.
And people who had looked on admiringly in recent weeks as it was built don’t have too long to wait until it opens.
The pub, in Withybridge Lane, not far from junction 10 of the M5, aims to welcome the first customers this coming weekend. They will find a big TV and a place to relax outdoors without risking too much with the British weather.
The area also has heating and Donna James, who runs the restaurant with husband Jason, says it’s been designed with dog owners in mind.
As dogs aren’t allowed in the beer garden (which has play equipment) it means parents and carers can have their dogs close at hand but away from the fenced-off family dining and play area.
The work, carried out by Dan Edes and Dave Cooke, is described as a bespoke red cedar outbuilding with kandala grey Indian sandstone patio – and the ideal place to watch sport and could also host live bands.
Next to the outbuilding is a flower bed with a seat. It also has a Thatchers apple tree in pride of place.
As well as the new outside area, the House in the Tree has a junior football pitch. There is also a petting zoo with pigs, goats, chickens and guinea pigs.
The name of the pub comes from there having been a tree house very close to where the pub is now. But health and safety rules meant the tree had to be cut down.
Jason, who has an old photograph of the tree house on display inside the pub, said he believed that happened in either the 1970s or 1980s.