'We couldn't find a house so bought a pub with pool table to live in'
Suzanne and Mark Wilcox, were looking to relocate to Cardiff, and after struggling to find a big enough house they bought a pub instead.
Suzanne and Mark were looking for a large house in central Cardiff but were having trouble finding a property that had everything they wanted so in an effort to compromise they bought a pub as their next home.
Suzanne said that her partner Mark was driving down a Cardiff road, reading out estate agent numbers to her on the phone. She told Wales Online: “When he got to the bottom of the street he said 'you need to keep an open mind' because he’d seen the 'for sale’ sign on The Westgate pub. He got me to Google it and I think my first words were - 'I’m not living in a pub!' "But when I went online and saw such a beautiful building, it wasn’t your regular pub, I got to see and understand his plan."
Mark and Suzanne often have people knocking on their door expecting a working pub inside. (Allen & Harris, Pontcanna/ Wales Online)Mark remembers the moment they first met and viewed inside the brick building, he said: "It was very much love at first sight, it is just such an incredible building, the architecture and the design, and it was just 'wow'!"
The Grade II listed property that most long-term Cardiff residents know, via its distinctive façade, was built in 1932 by Sir Percy Thomas who is credited with some of south Wales' most recognisable buildings and structures, including The Temple of Peace in Cathays Park and Swansea's Guildhall.
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The Westgate had won Mark and Suzanne over and they wanted to buy it. After the initial shock of hearing that the couple was going to try and buy a pub to use as a private house, the family was on board with the idea. Mark said: "Our grown-up children loved the idea, they knew the place very well, so they were quite excited. I think our son had visited it when it was a pub, we’d walked past it in the past but never been in it ourselves."
Suzanne said the building is so big that her partner can't hear her when she calls out to him. (Allen & Harris, Pontcanna/ Wales Online)The Westgate’s size, as well as its prime location within walking distance to the Principality Stadium, made it a popular proposition and Suzanne and Mark found themselves battling to win the building at auction.
As well as fighting off property developers during a bidding war to secure The Westgate pub as their future home, the purchase also came with a huge risk - there was no guarantee that it would get ‘change of use’ planning permission.
Suzanne said: "We had a serious moment when we looked at each other and said 'we need to increase the bid because how would we feel if we didn’t get it'? It was very much an emotional purchase because we were so taken with it. I remember when we put the planning in for ‘change of use’ the planning officer was confused. He said: 'you want to change it to a house but you don’t want to change anything inside?’”
The games room still has an original pool table and dartboard. (Allen & Harris, Pontcanna/ Wales Online)The first few days for the couple and their daughter at The Westgate were characterised by Brains brewery having left almost everything exactly the same as the day it closed in June, 2016. Suzanne said: "I think the most surreal moment was coming down on the first morning to make a cup of coffee and using the coffee machine downstairs and having breakfast in the lounge bar.”
“It was strange, walking around a pub in your dressing gown and pajamas, it was a little bizarre. It's wonderful exploring all the nooks and crannies that you don’t normally get to see in a pub, all the behind the scenes.”
One knock at the door revealed one of the pub's most unusual visitors to the bar - a baby elephant. A man who lived in the street behind the pub turned up and offered the couple a framed photo of an elephant waiting to be served at The Westgate's bar, a photo that now has pride of place on the very same bar.
Mark explains: "Apparently it was the time when the circus used to go past The Westgate on their way to Sophia Gardens for their show, and the gentleman said that the person in the photo sitting next to the elephant was his dad.
"The one thing we quickly learned is you have to have your mobile phone with you because you can’t shout to the other person, it’s too big - you can’t shout ‘where are you?’ because you could be anywhere!"
The couple said owning a genuine pub as a home, rather than buying a standard house that has a home bar added to it, comes with a massive advantage when it comes to hosting parties and events, with past guests including rugby legend and friend Jonathan 'Jiffy' Davies.
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Their 'legend' friend 'Jiffy' loves their pub home. (Suzanne and Mark Wilcox/ Wales Online)Suzanne said: "We have had the most incredible family and friends parties in the pub. The pumps are connected but no longer work, but all of the optics and the beer fridges still work. We had our 25th wedding anniversary party at the pub. We got married at Cardiff castle and that’s one of the reasons why The Westgate is really special to us because it’s so close to the grounds of the castle, so we invited all the people who came to our wedding originally, and all of our family and friends, to celebrate.”
"We still have the commercial kitchen in place, all the fridges and freezers, steak grill, commercial ovens, and all the catering equipment for large groups as well, so come Christmas I'm probably the only person who doesn’t stress about providing Christmas lunch, of running out of oven space or seating space."
Mark said he is fond of the games room at the rear of the pub that's still home to a pool table and dartboard. He said: "We’ve also got 'his and hers' gyms and have developed a large, elevated garden terrace where we host parties too. Our grandkids love the pub because it doesn’t matter what the weather is like, they can run round and round in total safely. We have five grandchildren and it's wonderful to hear them laughing and enjoying themselves and to have the freedom to play."
But the ground floor bar is not always the place where the family gathers, especially if there are no visitors in the building, then they gravitate upstairs and cook dinner in the smaller kitchen and watch a movie in the more intimate and cosy lounge on the first floor. There's plenty of space for the couple to work from home too, running their business Business Step Up which provides business advice and assistance to small businesses in Wales, and works with the Welsh Government to link Welsh businesses with opportunities overseas - but not many people across the world can boast a genuine pub and bar as their Zoom background for online meetings.
When a well-known building is changing, local residents are understandably interested in what is going on, and the couple has lost count of the number of people who have told them their memorable, personal stories of The Westgate. Suzanne said: "When we meet people socially we get stories of the pub, saying things like ‘Oh, I used to sit in the seat there with my dad and have a pint before the match’, ‘I got hideously drunk and was ill in your toilet’, 'I met my girlfriend at your bar’ and things like that and that has been lovely."
The couple said they have had some intriguing knocks on the pub's front door too, with two in particular standing out as probably the most memorable. Mark said: "I can recall two days before one particular Christmas, we were outside the main door and this lady of a certain age said ‘Excuse me son, you’re in my way, I’m going into the pub’ and I said 'I’m so sorry but the pub is closed.' But she said 'I’ve always come in here for the past 24 years and sat in the corner seat and have a glass of stout, I’ve always done it'.”
The pub still has a commercial kitchen in place, all the fridges and freezers, steak grill, commercial ovens, and all the catering equipment. (Allen & Harris, Pontcanna/ Wales Online)“I told her I couldn't promise her stout but I did have bottles of lager - she said 'that’ll do', so she came in, had a seat and we gave her a couple of glasses of lager and she was quite pleased with herself! We love hearing all these wonderful stories that have developed over the years at the pub. People have been so keen and interested to know who we are, where we’ve come from, and what are our intentions with The Westgate; it seems to draw so much love and affection and interest from so many in the city."
But it hasn't all been parties and reminiscing with the local residents since the couple bought the building, with securing a ‘change of use’ from commercial to residential the relatively easy part. Mark and Suzanne’s top priority was to renovate and restore the outside of the property, whilst keeping the inside almost exactly the same in the public bar areas. They researched how the façade used to look for their inspiration, with the invaluable help of the staff of The Glamorgan Archives, who the couple praise most highly for their assistance.
Over the years, guttering had been leaking and rotted some of the walls, Welsh green slate roof tiles needed to be sourced, and all the windows needed replacing within the permissions of the building's listed status, as well as a list of jobs connected to restoring all the brickwork, masonry and chimneys. Mark said: "We used all local companies and craftspeople too, which we weren't sure was possible, but were so pleased we managed it. Taking The Westgate back to its glory days of when it was built has an effect - you could see the people working on it becoming passionate about the building too, it’s infectious, they were so excited by the work."
But now the time has come for the couple to move on and realise their dream of moving to the peace and tranquility of the Welsh coast and end their custodianship of The Westgate, passing this most wonderful of homes onto someone else. Suzanne says: "We will be so sad to leave but we're definitely going to have quite a few leaving parties, that's for sure."
The Westgate is going to auction with a guide price of £800,000 with Allen & Harris, Pontcanna, call them on 029 2022 5700 to find out more.
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