New lease of life for Regency building in Leamington's Old Town
One of Leamington’s iconic Regency buildings has been given a new lease of life after a year-long refurbishment.
The former Temperance Hotel building, which is in Bath Street in Old Town, underwent an extensive refurbishment to become the multi-purpose building it is now.
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Hide AdNow called ‘Temperance’, the building is owned and run by Adrian Gains. He said: “The building as around 200 years old and it is a typical Regency building in the oldest part of Leamington. It started off as a drapers and then became the Westminster Temperance Hotel and Coffee Tavern. It was hotel until the 1930s and then became a sports and toy shop. Then in the 1960s/1970s it became Cartwrights Sports Shop.
“I bought the building a couple of years ago when it was a second hand furniture shop called ‘Shop of Treasures’.”
Because of the condition of the building, Adrian refurbished both inside and outside. He said: “It was in a very poor condition and it had not been touched for decades so I completely gutted and refurbished it.
“The cellar was also damaged by the floods in the late 1990s.
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Hide Ad“I completely took everything back to brick and restored it to how it was. It is a grade II listed building so the work needed to be done sympathetically and I also decided to stick with the name of ‘Temperance’.”
The Temperance reopened in May and now incorporates art, a cafe and entertainment.
“I decided to open it as a sort of creative centre,” said Adrian. “By the day it is a cafe and art gallery, which also has vintage items for sale.
“We have four cinema screens where we show films and national theatre, we have live music from local bands, comedy nights and story telling. I also think we are a first for Leamington as we have a bar but don’t serve alcohol, but this has gone down quite well. This area in Old Town is coming up, there are new shops and restaurants which are encouraging signs that it will be restored to its former glory.”
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Hide AdAdrian, who owns the Temperance, was also presented with a certificate by the Leamington Society in recognition of the work done to the historic building.
The Temperance, which is located in Bath Street, is open seven days a week from 9am to 7pm.
Events take place throughout the week ranging from live music to story telling evenings.
For more information about events go to: https://www.facebook.com/temperance.cafe