York bar and beer shop to shut - Owners seek new site and plan a beer supermarket

The House of The Trembling Madness opened in Stonegate in spring 2010, next door to Bettys tea-rooms, which owns both buildings. But when the bar's owners approached Bettys seeking an extension to their lease, they were refused.

The bar opened in 2010

Owner Ian Loftus says he is now looking for a larger site in the city-centre but also an out-of-town site for a beer supermarket, so they can build on the success of the bar and shop in its first five years.

A Bettys spokeswoman said they did not have plans in place to expand their own site, but said: "We are keeping our property options open and the premises may still be leased."

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The House of The Trembling Madness was inspired by Belgian beer bars and its vast beer selection and medieval setting made it immediately popular.

The downstairs of the building is a large bottled beer and spirit shop, with the bar area above.

Mr Loftus said he had been told Bettys wanted to expand, although the tea-room company told The Press there were no such plans in place. The two buildings are interwoven upstairs, with parts of Bettys wrapping around the room that holds the bar.

The bar-room

Mr Loftus said he would need to find a new venue by 2018 and said moving could boost the business. He said he hoped to open a bottled beer supermarket on the outskirts of the city as well as a re-homed bar in the city-centre.

"It would be nice to have a better space, and to have something with two entrances and exits, maybe some outside space and somewhere a bit bigger for the kitchen so we can keep more food than we have now."

The view from the upstairs window

Last week, Sir Terry Wogan filmed at The House of The Trembling Madness as part of a day-long visit to York, filming part of a new BBC series on British food with London cabbie Mason McQueen, provisionally titled Terry and Mason's Food Trip.