Historic Chesterfield town centre pub set to reopen this week after period of closure

The Rutland on Stephenson Place will reopen at 5pm on Friday, May 5 – with Martin and Dawn Alvey at the helm. Dawn was the former manager of The Rectory and Martin runs the Great Historic Pub Tours around Chesterfield – as well as pub quizzes at the Pig & Pump.

Martin said: “Dawn knows running pubs like the back of her hand. The main thing with taking over The Rutland is trying to turn it back into a ‘pub pub’ again – just a nice place that people want to go to.

“Over the past five or six years, people have tried different things with it. I think the last people were there around February, and a few different groups of people have been in and out.

“We want to get some nice ales on and different drinks that people will like, and get that atmosphere back again.”

Dawn and Martin work with Spire Inns, a Chesterfield-based company that takes on the leases of venues in the area – although the Rutland is still owned by Stonegate.

Martin said the venue needed some care ahead of the relaunch, but added that the pub’s long history was something the pair wanted to celebrate.

“It didn’t need a massive revamp, it was mostly just cleaning up. It was left in a bit of a state. We’ve been re-varnishing the floors and original wooden pillars and things like that, repainting some things. There’s a few different bits and bobs, but no massive changes.

“The outside of the building needs some love too. We want to get some hanging signs and things like that.

“I was surprised that there were no actual pictures inside of The Rutland itself or of Chesterfield. I’ve been putting some of them up, to show the whole history of the place and how it’s changed. It opened in 1870 originally and it used to be the home of the mayor, so we want to get a bit of that history back in there as well.”

The Rutland is not the only Chesterfield pub set to reopen this month, and Martin said that this was positive for every town centre venue.

“You’re not in competition when it comes to pubs, because pubs do their own thing. Obviously, you want people to be able to move from pub to pub.

“There’s definitely a bit of an uptick at the moment – The Golden Fleece is reopening again soon.

“We’ve been chatting to Tom and Kate who run the Pig & Pump and that’s a great thing, it keeps the town centre running. The relationships with other pubs are a big thing to me.

Martin added that food will be making a return at The Rutland, along with a series of different events and pub quizzes.

“So many people in town have mentioned that it’s a shame The Rutland is closed. It’s one of those pubs where people like to go and chill.

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“I’ll be running a quiz night and different events and things, but at places like The Rutland, people like to go and sit in there in the daytime with a pint and read a book.

“The weekends will obviously be more busy. It’s a little bit out of the way of Corporation Street, for people who don’t want the hustle and bustle of all that.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to get traditional pub food back soon – things like Sunday dinners and pies. We want to make it the best pub we can really.”

The pub will open from noon till 11pm between Sunday – Thursday, and noon till midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. More information can be found on the Rutland Facebook page here.