Note: This article was written before the Prime Minister's announcement on Saturday affecting pubs.

A POPULAR East Oxford watering hole has reopened under new management

The Star, on Rectory Road, closed for much of October but has now been reopened by the former manager of The White Rabbit pub in the city centre.

Gus Rogers, 30, reopened the pub with his partner Anna Thompson-Rowlands, 30, and promised to keep the pub’s ‘vibe’ the same.

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Mr Rogers and Ms Thompson-Rowlands have been together for seven years and have always wanted to own their own pub.

Mr Rogers said: “We are both from Oxford and grew up here. I used to run The White Rabbit, and then we both moved to Bristol about four years ago, and I managed the White Rabbit there. But now we have come back to get our own place.”

Ms Thompson-Rowlands, a local primary school teacher, added: “The reason we chose The Star is because it was always our favourite pub when we were in Oxford.

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“We used to come here all the time and play pool, so when we heard it was for sale we had to buy it.”

Buying a pub in the middle of a pandemic, however, has not been easy.

The couple had their offer accepted in February but because of lockdown they decided to wait.

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Mr Rogers said: “It is a mad time to buy a pub, but we didn’t want to let the opportunity slip. So after lockdown we thought we’d just go for it, otherwise we’d lose the pub.”

When it was announced that the pair would be taking over, regulars at The Star created an online petition to ensure the pub’s interior would not be changed.

The petition, which had almost 500 signatures, said: “Please preserve The Star as the place we all know and love – and we’ll keep coming.”

The new owners decided not to change the pub’s interior drastically but rather give it a clean and a ‘general fix-up’.

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Ms Thompson-Rowlands said: “We laid down some new reclaimed wood for the floorboards and ripped up the old carpet.

“We’ve kept the original curtains, because we were told that they were made by the previous manager, so we thought it would be nice to keep those.”

Mr Rogers added: “The lady who has made the petition seemed positive and approved.

Read also: City pub finally reopens after seven months of being shut

"I think people may have thought it was a massive brewery taking over, but it’s just us.”

“We are going to need to get the garden back as soon as possible because we closed it off to help with the refurb of the site.

"I think it has the biggest and best beer garden in Oxford.”

The pub operates on a first-come-first-served basis and does not take bookings.