Flying Horse pub in Ipswich set to re-open with new owners

flying horse to reopen

A former Ipswich drinking pub is set to re-open under new ownership following renovations.

The Flying Horse is currently closed while Ipswich couple Sarah and Giulio Battistetti work on transforming the venue into a community pub.

They bought the Waterford Road business, in the Whitehouse area of Ipswich, in February and hope to open in August.

The couple started renovations last week, ripping out the toilets and kitchen and adding accessible facilities for people with disabilities, baby change and family use, after they were given £20,000 from Ipswich Borough Council under the Town Fund project.

The cellar and bar areas are being ripped out to be re-installed.

Mr Battistetti is also renovating the kitchen and snug lounge for a café to open, serving food, coffee and soft drinks at family prices.

Eventually, there are plans for the bar to reopen with a restaurant in the lounge, along with a conservatory and fresh landscaped beer garden, and the field outside to host a youth club, gardening, and other activities.

Mrs Battistetti moved to the county from Sussex more than 20 years ago and owns two other businesses under the name Sarah Wright – Butterfly Childcare as well as Childminding at Home.

She said: “The building has not had anything done to it for at least 40 years and was built in the 1960s and a lot of it is the same. There’s so much work to do.

“It’s really exciting and quite daunting. I own two other businesses but the opportunity to help people is massive. It’s something Whitehouse is missing.

“We are trying to reach out to all the people who wouldn’t normally go in there.

“It will be for families and elderly people and all sections of the community. It will be for everybody – a diverse, multi-use building.

“What I really need is someone to help re-surface the tarmac in the car park. It’s so expensive but there are quite a lot of potholes!”

The pub hopes to host mum and tots groups, groups for elderly people, new mum support groups, baby gymnastics, workshops and more.

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Flying Horse pub in Ipswich set to re-open with new owners