Stratford Upon Avon Retail to Rent - Stratford-upon-Avon
No.9 Church St. is a grade II listed building of special architectural and historic interest located within the conservation area of Stratford-upon-Avon town centre. The three-storey property plus cellar, between the commercial centre and the "Old Town" district, dates from 1600, when Shakespeare would have passed by the original timber framed structure.
With later brick front, ground floor bay window, tile clay roof and dormer windows, the property has been continually let as a restaurant for over 15 years. The character building has been extensively renovated to blend stylish décor with the property's exposed period features, subtly lit by sophisticated lighting highlighting individual tables. The ground floor boasts a brick-built bar and fireplace offering a relaxed reception area, with a view of the modern kitchen to the rear.
The first floor with two feature fireplaces offers the main dining areas, whilst the second floor offers a private dining room for parties up to 10 people, set beneath 400 year-old exposed timbers.
Stratford-upon-Avon is a medieval market town in the Midlands, best known as the 16th-century birthplace of William Shakespeare. The town's 30,000 population is boosted by around five million visitors a year. There are three theatres run by the Royal Shakespeare Company attracting over one million visitors per annum. The town boasts many original buildings and a thriving community of leisure, accommodation and shopping venues.
The property traded as No.9 Church St a well-known independent restaurant set inside a historic 17th-century building. It built a strong reputation for seasonal British cuisine with a modern twist, using local ingredients and offering a relaxed but high-quality dining experience. More recently the restaurant traded as Pick Thai a small, family-run Thai restaurant known for authentic home-style cooking and friendly service.
With a strong pre-theatre restaurant clientele in the town the restaurant offers the potential to turn the tables 2 or 3 times per night. The Thai restaurant also had a strong take away and delivery business.
In the words of the Bard himself...
Attend, good sir, and lend thine ear to hear
Of that fair house, No. 9 on Church Street plac’d,
A structure mark’d of rank and grace,
Of ancient worth and storied dignity,
Within the guarded bounds of Stratford fair,
Where Avon’s gentle breath doth stir the air.
This noble pile, three storeys tall it stands,
With cellar deep beneath its aged bones,
Betwixt the mart of trade and Old Town’s heart,
Hath watch’d the centuries in patient pride.
First rais’d when sixteen hundred mark’d the year,
When my yourself a playwrite did pass
Beside its timber’d frame in youthful days.
In later times, a brickéd face adorn’d
Its ancient front; a bay upon the ground
Doth graciously project; the roof of tile,
With dormers peering like observant eyes,
Keeps faithful watch above. For many years
Fifteen and more—it serv’d as house of feast,
Where patrons dine and merry converse share.
Within, the careful hand of art hath wrought
A marriage fair ‘twixt old and new design:
The beams laid bare, time’s signature unhid,
Are softly bath’d in lights of subtle craft,
That each fair table glows in gentle warmth.
The lower hall presents a hearth of brick,
A bar well-built, where welcome first is giv’n,
And from whose space the kitchen may be spied,
In modern guise, yet fitting to the whole.
Ascend thou next unto the upper floor,
Where twin-set hearths bestow a noble air
Upon the chambers made for feasting guests;
And higher still, beneath four hundred years
Of timber’d frame expos’d to reverent sight,
A private room awaits selectéd souls
Ten may there sup in quiet, gracious state,
Enclos’d within the arms of history.