A pub that was devastated by a fire has reopened after months of refurbishment, and it now boasts a fabulous outdoor space.
The Bull at Arborfield Cross had closed its premises to customers after the blaze destroyed an outer building back in 2024.
Reuben Miles-Brar, who runs The Bull along with the rest of his family, spoke to us about their ‘better than ever’ renovated outdoor seating area.
The beer garden now has an extensive number of tables and chairs across both a patio space and a green.
Trees have been taken out so more seating can be put in, and they now have lots of new umbrellas.
“The basic idea is still the same, but it is a higher finish now,” Mr Miles-Brar said.
“The standard of what is here is a lot nicer now.”
“We had put up a temporary setup for people to watch the Euros last summer,” Mr Miles-Brar said.
“Only half of our garden was functional, and since then, we have done work on the rest of the outside.”
It took crews from six Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service stations more than three hours to extinguish the fire, which occurred in April 2024.
An outbuilding and patio area in the beer garden of the pub caught fire at about 4am.
Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service said crews from Wokingham, Whitley Wood, Wokingham Road, Caversham Road, Bracknell, Crowthorne, and Windsor were deployed to the scene.
“We were on a really good run before the fire,” Mr Miles-Brar said.
“It was a major learning curve for us, just before we had felt that we had got the pub to a really good level.”
The pub had loads of private events booked up in their outside area prior to the devastation back in 2024, which they then sadly had to cancel.
It had taken the family that runs The Bull a lot of work to get to that place, and Mr Miles-Brar spoke on their experience after the loss.
“All of a sudden, overnight, everything is just gone, all that hard work,” he said.
“It was a pretty difficult thing to deal with, but I suppose you you then have to just keep going.
“We had to just try and crack on, do everything we possibly could to make the place as functional as possible.
“There’s only so much you can do when there are crumbling buildings and ash all around you.”