Red Lion in Heckmondwike open again

Nick Kershaw took charge of the Red Lion, in Market Street, earlier on this year and reopened the pub three weeks ago after a refurbishment.

He said that trade was picking up and that the town was beginning to show some promise.

“Business has been steady so far. We just want to have a traditional pub and this one has a lot of history.

“It’s good for the nightlife generally to have pubs open,” he said.

“We have had quite a few people in, and some regulars, it just needs some stability. We just want to keep it up and keep building our customer base week by week.

“We will just be doing drink, we don’t have plans to do food.

“But we are planning to have karaoke in the pub in the future.”

He said the Red Lion had some troubles in the past but he intended to move on from that image.

“We won’t put up with idiots,” he said.

“We have had no trouble in here.”

Nick runs 13 other pubs as well as the Red Lion.

He said that having more pubs in the town centre made better businesses sense for other pubs and attracted people going out in the town.