A SOCIAL club has been converted into a fully-fledged bar to help attract new customers.

Having obtained a pub licence more than eight years ago and now become a limited company, Upton Social Club has been transformed into Bar Severn.

Steven Blakeway took over as licensee at the club seven years ago, initially on a voluntary basis, and is now one of three directors of the new Old Street pub.

He said 80 per cent of members were no longer using the club and hopes the regeneration will attract new customers, including those coming into the town for its festivals.

“Social clubs are dying, to be fair – I think there’s a bit of a stigma attached to them these days,” he said.

“If you walk past a social club, you wonder if you should go in there.

“I’m hoping to continue to bring in a lot of new faces, who probably wouldn’t have come in while it said ‘Social Club’ over the door.”

He said: “People used to visit the town and stand out at the doorway and you could tell they’re thinking: can we go in there?”

Having joined the old club as a member in 2001 and often having helped behind the bar, Mr Blakeway, 40, said he started to notice interest dwindling about 12 years ago.

“When I took over as licensee it just wasn’t attracting enough people, so I’ve done my best to build it up free of charge, only taking a very low running wage for the last two years,” he said.

Prior to having the new pub licence in place, the club abided by the traditional two-tier pricing system, in which members got 20p off pints.

As well as paying full price for drinks, non-members also had to be invited in by members, pay 50p and sign a visitor book.

“We got rid of all that seven years ago with the new licence and that’s how we started sloping towards becoming a pub,” said Mr Blakeway, who is a lorry driver by day.

He said the majority of people are happy about the transformation, but admitted there was some resistance from certain members.

“I would say, 95 per cent of people are happy about it all, but there’s a couple of the other ones that are not because they didn’t want to lose the social club,” explained Mr Blakeway.

“But, our thinking was if you’d have used it, you wouldn’t have lost it. There were people moaning who haven’t been in it for 20 years.”

Mr Blakeway, who previously ran a pub in Bromyard and is a trained chef, will be joined by three paid bar staff at Bar Severn, which opened last Saturday following a revamp.

The official opening is to be held on Sunday (May 27) from 1pm and will include a free BBQ for customers, a bouncy castle and live music from the Delray Rockets.