The Bookshop Alehouse, Southampton's latest micropub, has had planning permission approved, been granted an alcohol licence, and work is now underway to begin serving local ales and craft beers by the beginning of February.

 

As we revealed in October, the pub will be in what was previously Peter Rhodes bookshop at 21 Portswood Road. Contrary to reports elsewhere, it will have a capacity of just 60.

“It's more exciting now than it was,” said co-owner Jon Harris, pictured. “It's just that the list of things to do has gone from being this imaginary list of a million things, to an actual list of a million things!”

He said he's always had his own vision of how The Bookshop Alehouse would be, and now feels the pressure's on to achieve it.

“I was feeling quite a lot of pressure from other people's ideas about how it would be, in terms of what they wrote in support of the planning application.

“It was like, 'Oh my gosh: it's going to be a great little bookshop that sells beer as well', and my take on it is the other way around: it's a lot of beer with some books.

Expectations

“That's a bigger worry for me at the moment: how we match up to those expectations. I'm not going to ignore what people have said. People have had some good ideas... but it has to work, to be practical and be a business as well.”

Once all the hard work is done – installing cycle racks is one of the many jobs on the list – the micropub plans to open daily from lunchtime until closing time in the evenings.

Previously: Micro pub for Portswood?