Spring has finally sprung for ambitious entrepreneurs Mark Robson and Mark Williams, co-founders of Surrey-based independently-owned and run pub group Red Mist Leisure who this week has completed on its tenth site, the Temple Inn in Liss Forest, Hampshire.
The pub group has unveiled plans to invest 300k in the refurb of the 70-cover community pub, which has been closed since January 2017. Work will start imminently to improve the design, ambience and facilities of the pub, which was yet another one of Britain’s dying pubs before Red Mist Leisure became involved, following steps being taken by the Liss Resident’s Association who formed a pub task force called Save Our Temple Inn (SOTI).
Robson, Managing Director, said, “It’s been a long road and none of this would have been possible without the positive support from the villagers of Liss Forest who have demonstrated from the get –go, that they wanted to keep a pub in the heart of the village, that they could all love, frequent and be proud of. We look forward to continuing to work closely with the community to ensure that The Temple Inn is everything we all want it to be”.
Work on the pub will be completed for opening this summer, turning the pub that Liss Forest was so keen to save, into a destination establishment and like the other pubs in Red Mist Leisure’s award winning portfolio across Hampshire and Surrey, will become renowned for its fresh, seasonal and local British food, as well as offering a wide array of local ales, craft beers and gins.
Bought from Fullers, The Temple Inn takes Red Mist Leisure’s expanding portfolio to ten following the acquisition of the Wellington Arms in Stratfield Turgis, on the Hampshire -Berkshire borders at the end of last year.