Connelly's Bar

History

The room has been through names. It was Moo Bar from November 2014 to July 2016 under Nigel Tarn, then the Fat Gadgie, a smart city bar with six handpulls and a horseshoe of keg taps that made the Good Beer Guide. It shut on 23 March 2020 with everything else and, unlike most, did not come back: it stayed dark for three years and nine months. A reviewer walking past on a Tuesday night in September 2021 found the whole place unlit.

Connelly's ended that on 9 December 2023, and the idea was the owner's own taste in a night out. John Connelly told the paper he liked going out with his partner and sitting over a few cocktails somewhere warm, and that is what he built: dimmed lights, a quiet room, wines and mixed drinks, with the volume going up later on a Friday and on Saturday nights. Gavin Bisset ran the bar at the opening. Live music nights and private celebrations were part of the plan from the start.

It is registered as an Asset of Community Value, and it sits a few doors from the Thin White Duke and the lane down to Print Yard, on the stretch of Devonshire Street the council rebuilt and reopened with a street party in August 2024.