An interim team appointed by Enterprise Inns to run the Bitterne Park Hotel say the pub will reopen on Friday, March 7. 

“We are pleased to confirm that the Bitterne Park Hotel is due to reopen very soon under an interim manager while we continue to interview the various candidates with a long-term vision for the pub,” an Enterprise spokeperson told bitternepark.info.

Both new partners have experience of working for Enterprise Inns: Ray Bird runs the Dorchester Arms in Bevois Valley, while business partner Sharlene Warner was previously at The Castle in Midanbury before it shut in 2012 to make way for a Tesco Express.

Ray Bird said that the pub has a fantastic client base who have been very upset by the closure, and that the new management want to make it welcoming for new customers as well.

Friendly

“We’re both local people and we want to try and make it a nice friendly pub,” said Ray, who will continue to run the Dorchester; Sharlene will be landlady at the Bitterne Park.

He added that a band had already been booked for an opening night on March 7, and that the "fantastic garden" added potential for families to use the pub. He said he wasn’t yet sure if food would be offered at The Bitterne Park Hotel, but that the initial priority was to open again, and try to create a pub for the whole community.

The Bitterne Park Hotel shut in January, and although it was announced that the landlord of The Obelisk in Woolston had big plans to transform it, in a surprise move he pulled out just a week later.