Pub operator JD Wetherspoon is to open its new pub in Cross Gates, Leeds, tomorrow, with the creation of 40 new jobs.
The company has spent £2.6m developing the outlet, on the site of the former doctors’ surgery and adjoining dental practice, previously the Leeds Industrial Co-operative Society, in Austhorpe Road.
The Wetherspoon pub, which will be called The Charles Henry Roe, will be managed by Tom Reeve.
The Transport Yorkshire Preservation Group suggested the new pub name, which remembers a local bus manufacturer. James Fairchild from the voluntary group will be in attendance at the official opening, together with local transport historian Malcolm King, and also running a vintage bus around east Leeds.
For 90 years, thousands of buses were manufactured at the east end of Manston Lane, at Roe’s Carriage Works.
Charles H Roe established his Cross Gates Carriage Works, in 1920, and became 'the most successful, well-known and long-lived of the Leeds bus manufacturers'.
His Carriage Works closed in 1984 and was replaced by Optare, founded by workers from the former company. The manufacture of buses continued there until 2011 and the works were demolished soon after.
The new pub will be open from 8am until 11pm Sunday to Thursday, and 8am until 12 midnight Friday and Saturday. Food will be served throughout the day, from opening until 11pm everyday.
The Charles Henry Roe will specialise in real ales, as well as craft and world beers, serving a wide range of different draught ales, as well as bottled beers, including those from local and regional brewers.
It will be open for family dining, with children, accompanied by an adult, welcome in the pub up until 9pm, throughout the week.
The pub will be wheelchair accessible, with a specially adapted toilet for people with disabilities on the ground floor.
The new-look pub features one bar, as well as a beer garden to the back of the premises. Smoking will be permitted in a separate designated outdoor area.
Historical photos and details of local history, as well as artwork and images of local scenes and characters of the area, are displayed in the pub, together with information boards relating to events.
A number of bus related artefacts will be on display and replica bus seating fabric has been used to upholster some of the bar stools.
Manager Tom Reeve said: “Myself and my team are looking forward to welcoming customers into the pub and we are confident that it will be a great addition to the Cross Gates community.”