The team behind The Vines restoration is opening a new pub on Hope Street

The pub group behind The Vines on Lime Street, which was restored to its former glory and reopened in spring, are planning a big new one in the Georgian Quarter.

The 1936 Pub Company will open The Queen of Hope Street on the corner of Hope Street and Myrtle Street, opposite the Philharmonic Hall.

It will transform the building previously occupied by The Refinery kitchen and bar which closed its doors in June this year after seven years in business.

Due to open in around a month after a complete refit, The Queen of Hope Street will become a third city centre sister pub for The Vines and The Red Lion on Slater Street.

It’s still early stages for the project, but the owners have confirmed that like The Vines and Red Lion, it will be a traditional pub serving cask ales, along with a food menu of soups, sandwiches, pastries and pies.

Although the building doesn’t have the original ornate features of The Vines, which is a Victorian beauty, it does have a heritage of its own which the new venue looks set to focus on.

The pub will take over the ground floor space of the Josephine Butler Building, on the site of the former historic Josephine Butler House which was named in honour of one of the country’s most recognised social reformers.

Josephine Butler, who moved with her husband to live in Liverpool in the mid-1800s, played a major role in improving conditions for women in education and public health, and fought for the abolition of the slave trade.

A pioneering feminist in her day, she was described “the most distinguished woman of the nineteenth century” and is one of the city greats who are referenced in the Hope Street Suitcases sculpture, just a couple of minutes’ walk from the building named after her.

The 1936 Pub Company hasn’t revealed details of The Queen of Hope Street décor yet, but a portrait artwork of Josephine Butler is already lined up to take pride of place.

And, if past pubs are anything to go by, they won’t struggle to recreate a traditional feel.

At the time of The Vines reopening, owner Rob Gutmann said his previous two projects – The Red Lion and The Green Man on Lark Lane – had also needed some imagination to get the look right.

“I’ve taken buildings that weren’t old pubs and made them look like one. I’ve added layers of antiquity to give them character and make them feel as though they’ve been there for 100 years,” he explained.

The Queen of Hope Street will sit at the cultural heart of the Georgian Quarter, opposite the Philharmonic Pub, and neighbouring other Hope Street venues including Papillon, Frederik’s, the Everyman and London Carriage Works.