Tim and Val Everton reopen The Phoenix pub, in George Street, York (From York Press)

Tim and Val Everton reopen The Phoenix pub, in George Street, York

7:42am Friday 23rd October 2009 in News By Richard Harris

A former Cambridge University academic will put aside his gown and mortarboard for beer pumps and bar towels when he reopens one of York’s “lost”’ pubs tonight.

The Phoenix pub, in George Street, has had an unsettled past few years, with various landlords coming and going, and has been closed for a year.

Now, new owners, husband-and-wife-team, Tim and Val Everton, with daughter Jenny and her partner Jon, are determined to make the boozer a roaring success with real ale, fine wine and jazz on the menu.

Tim, formerly the head of Cambridge University’s education faculty, said owning a pub had always been a dream for him.

He said: “It’s our first pub. I was a university academic, but running a pub is always something I wanted to try.

“I took early retirement a while back and we bought this one. It’s the traditionally-inspired pub that we like.

“We want it to be a traditional pub specialising in real ale, fine wine, and the other thing we want to focus on is jazz. We’ve extended the rear bar to allow us to have live jazz.

“I’m a big jazz fan, I like pubs and this seemed an ideal way of putting the two together.”

As both owner and landlord Tim said he felt he would have an advantage on other landlords who had gone before him who had been tied to pub companies.

The Phoenix opens its doors tonight at 7pm.

The first jazz event takes place on Sunday night with the Ian Chalk Quartet.

Meanwhile, another pub is also reopening tonight after an enforced closure. The White Swan at Wighill, near Tadcaster, which has been closed for two years, has now been taken over by Ashley and Kelly McCarthy, who also have the award-winning Ye Old Sun Inn at Colton.