STEVE Bradley is going back to basics.

In a street that is blessed with four pubs in a couple of hundred yards, he hopes to carve a niche that is simple and popular. It's now all about the beer.

The Woolpack in Fawcett Street was relaunched in early 2013 as a bustling music venue in an old pub setting, and for a year it was well-loved and well-received. But sadly, things sadly did not work out financially. Now Steve has stepped in to give it fresh impetus and direction. And he's gone back to basics.

"I just want it to be a pub where people go for a drink like they used to do. "Already the sales of real ale are out-stripping everything else."

The beer focus does not mean there will be no entertainment. There will be occasional events; some big, some small. Steve says today will be John Peel Day in the pub, with his music playing all day to mark 11 years since the DJ's death.

But the days of The Woolpack being an out-and-out music pub are gone, a fun but fleeting adventure for those who found a new home here.

The problem was simple, in Steve's eyes. This was, he says, a "bottom-end pub" until Paul Crossman and Jon Farrow, also of The Slip, The Volunteer Arms and The Swan, bought it from Punch Taverns in 2013. Alas, says Steve, "the customers did not spend enough money". Cue the relaunch.

There are eight hand-pulls on the bar and although Steve is currently running with five real ales and two ciders, he says the busier it gets, the more he will stock.

Those with local loyalties will feel at home here. With possible occasional exceptions, all the ales will be from Yorkshire breweries. There will always be one from Timothy Taylor's and always one from Revolutions Brewery in Castleford. Other breweries such as Acorn are proving popular - and so too will the prices. All cask ales are £2.50 a pint from 5pm to 7pm on weekdays, and begin at £2.70 a pint outside those hours. Away from the cask ales, there are continental options including Peroni, Kozel and Pilsner Urquell.

"There are six licensed premises on this island if you include the restaurants," says Steve. "But there is no point in me doing what the others do. Each pub has its niche and ours will be a regularly rotating and interesting beer range. I'm not going to focus on Ossett or Leeds beers that you get everywhere - I want different stuff, and as a freehouse our prices will be very competitive."

If the change here marks a new chapter for The Woolpack, it also gives Steve a chance to prove a point. He fell out with Punch Taverns at The Fulford Arms and now says he would "never go near a pub company ever ever again". So at The Woolpack, a former Punch pub, he feels he has a chance to show that pubs deemed unviable by the pubcos can be made to work with time, passion and drive.

"They thought this was not worth having," says Paul. "So this could be a double-whammy."

The Woolpack's new opening hours are 3pm to midnight on weekdays, noon to midnight on Saturdays and noon to 11pm on Sundays.

--- Meltons Too in Walmgate has reopened following refurbishment, and is now called The Walmgate Ale House and Bistro. The business remains essentially unchanged, catering for diners, drinkers and cafe-goers.