Sign of the times

Thursday 30 October 2014

A surprising discovery and a chance meeting on the street has led to a town pub taking back its old name a decade after rebranding itself as Bellini’s.

Landlord Noel Flood has changed the name of the pub in Broad Street - the ground floor of the Blue Note Bar – back to The Mitre, after two visitors turned up at the bar with a set of old photos and the original deeds of the sale of the property to the Ann Street Brewery.

He says the pair had wandered around town for two days looking for “The Mitre Hotel”, until they asked someone who directed them to Bellinis.

“They came in and they’d been looking for it,” said Mr Flood.

“Someone they knew had passed on, and they’d left behind them some papers. The papers included the old Bill of Sale of the Mitre Hotel to the brewery, and some photographs from 1923.

“We had a great chat and it got the nostalgia flowing, and a few stories were shared.”

Mr Flood says that he decided to change the name back – with a bit of help from signwriter Francisco Presume – but he says it’s still not the original title for the pub. When it first opened it was called The Winchester Bar, and the upstairs area was called The Salisbury Lounge – the two bars were, unusually, named after cathedrals.