Ex-Corrie star brings fresh life to old Lion
FORMER Coronation Street star Rupert Hill is preparing to open his latest venture – as he continues his mission to breathe new life into traditional old pubs.
Actor Rupert is passionate about taking on tired old pubs and giving them an updated twist, which is just what he and his team have done with the Red Lion in Cheadle.
The Robinsons pub has been given a major makeover, including part of the former car park turned into a brand new terrace area. Rupert said: “It’s a great feeling when you take something that’s fledgling and breathe new life into it, it’s the thing I like doing the most.”
The Red Lion joins a stable of businesses that Rupert and his business partners continue to own across Manchester – Gullivers and The Castle in the Northern Quarter and the Bakers Vaults in Stockport with Jonny Booth and The Rivals at the Royal Exchange in the city centre with Goska Langrish, Jamie Langrish, Anna Fysh and Sam Fraser.
Rupert first moved to Manchester back in 2004 to take on the role of Jamie Baldwin in Coronation Street.
He would not only meet the love of his life on the Corrie cobbles, co-star Jenny Platt who played Violet Wilson, but he fell in love with the city too.
The couple married in 2013 and now live in Chorlton with their two daughters, and Rupert continues to juggle his acting and directing career with his passion for pubs and music.
Taking on The Red Lion during lockdown might have sounded like a risk, but Rupert had always been keen to add a pub with outdoor space to the growing hospitality business.
Vitally, it also means that it will be able to reopen while the city centre venues must for now stay closed until the next stage of the reopening roadmap out of lockdown expected in May.
Rupert said: “We’ve been looking for another site for a while, we’d been looking for a new country pub because we wanted somewhere where we could do weddings with having the brilliant hospitality team we have now at The Rivals.
“Beer gardens became integral to that and we thought it’s a shame none of our pubs have outdoor areas.
“Over the summer, Robinsons said why not have a look at the Red Lion Cheadle, because of the circumstances with lockdown they gave us a good deal.
“We took it on in October and ran it as it was until we had to shut again during the second lockdown and we’ve been refurbing it ourselves ever since.
“All our businesses in town suffer when the weather is good because we don’t have outdoor space, so it was good to have one of the destinations that would take off when the others are quieter.
“But the great thing about the Red Lion is that we are hoping it will become a destination food pub year round.”
Pub goers can expect a mouth-watering menu of posh pub grub, created by head chef Anna Fysh who has won acclaim for her menu at The Rivals, and was also famously behind the award-winning Sunday roast at The Parlour in Chorlton.
Her Sunday roast will be a firm fixture at the Red Lion, as well as signature dishes like featherblade of beef, ham hock scotch egg and chicken Kiev.
Rupert said: “The Red Lion was a proper traditional pub but it was struggling a bit, it was lacking in TLC and had some really old carpet in there. It just looked a bit rough around the edges.
“It’s a beautiful old building but it needed a lot of work, the kitchen was in a terrible state – it had to be ripped out and cleaned, it needed some love which is pretty much everything I’ve done so far with our pubs and love to do.”