North West brewery Hydes is celebrating as its newest pub, The Harry Beswick, in Wirral, has exceeded all performance expectations in its first year.
The Salford-based brewer originally acquired the landmark building on Telegraph Road in 2022 for £1.3 million. The acquisition of the building was Hydes’ first property acquisition since 2018 and Hydes’ first new establishment to open in five years.
Unused for over a decade, Hydes spent over six months transforming the town’s former police station, investing a further £2.3 million into developing the premium pub dining venue.
Total sales in the first year at The Harry Beswick have significantly exceeded expectations and the Harry Beswick has proved a major addition to the Hydes estate.
Hydes has named the pub after the original architect of the building, Harry Beswick. Born in Chester in 1856, Harry Beswick was county architect for Chester from 1895 until 1926, responsible for designing over 40 buildings including numerous police stations and school buildings.
The iconic building, originally built in 1911, received an extensive renovation and much to the delight of concerned historians from the local community and former police officers based there, it retained many of the building’s original features, with design enhancements and nostalgic touches reflecting the station’s proud police force history.
An extension created a spacious outside dining area at the front of the building with the addition of a welcoming sun-facing terrace and a customer car park to the rear, resulting in a positive contribution to the street scene, and overall vibrancy of Heswall town centre.
General manager Roy Wilson, was appointed prior to the opening of The Harry Beswick, and has spearheaded the success achieved since the pub first opened its doors last November.
Roy comments: “It’s been a whirlwind 12 months and we haven’t really stopped since we first opened our doors. The response from customers has been tremendous and we quickly built up regular trade. We’ve also had a great reaction from the local community which is important to Hydes – we have lots of customers who were once based here as working police officers when it was the community station, so it’s great that it still has a valuable role to play in the area.
“Although trade settled down during the year, it’s still a very busy pub and we serve an average of 1500 meals every week. We also employ a base of around 50 staff from the local community and the pub is a popular place to work.
“Christmas last year was very busy considering we’d only been open for a month and we anticipate that with office parties to accommodate this year too, it’s going to be an extremely busy festive period indeed. We were booked up for Christmas Day by the end of July!”
The Harry Beswick offers a varied menu of classic and contemporary food dishes with traditional roast dinners served all day on Sundays, plus Hydes’ comprehensive range of cask and keg beers, and an extensive wines and spirits selection.
Managing director of Hydes Brewery, Adam Mayers, said: “We’re delighted with how The Harry Beswick has performed. Since day one it has just exceeded all expectations. The combination of the stunning building renovation and the commitment of the manager and the team have ensured its success.
“Acquiring the building was a long time in the making and our first new opening for five years but it was well worth the wait and the investment. The Harry Beswick delivers a memorable experience for customers with its quality, contemporary design and feel which is uniquely and nostalgically aligned to its former life as a police station, combined with a premium dining and drinking offering and Hydes’ standards of customer service.”
The acquisition and opening of The Harry Beswick marks an ongoing multi-million pound investment programme across the Hydes’ estate. Over the last two years, Hydes has committed over £10m to refurbishments of pubs across its estate and plans to continue supporting and investing in its pubs throughout 2025.
