The Grapes Puts Community Back at the Heart of Bath

The Grapes on Westgate Street is proving a pub can still be a public good, with music, meet-ups and a new community allotment project.

Turn Up, Dig In, Belong: The Grapes Puts Community Back at the Heart of Bath

From a Saturday allotment for the lonely and the burnt out to live music five nights a week, the historic Westgate Street freehouse is proving that a good pub can still be a public good.

BATH, 2nd July 2026 – The Grapes on Westgate Street has spent the last four years quietly building something that goes well beyond last orders. Behind the pumps of a building that has stood on this site since around 1580, and served drinkers since 1792, owners Ellie and Jonny Leiper have been growing a rather different kind of project two miles away in Newbridge: an allotment.

The plot at Roots Allotments began during lockdown, when it became clear how many people in Bath were isolated, exhausted or simply in need of somewhere to be. Paid for and supported by The Grapes since its earliest days, the site has now grown into Shady Broken Locals, a community allotment project officially launching during Mental Health Awareness Week, from 11th March 2026.

Every Saturday between 10am and 5pm, anyone is welcome to turn up, dig in and belong, no gardening experience, mental health vocabulary or commitment required. The project has been driven in large part by regular Pete Hardy, who has spent recent months turning the site from an overgrown plot into a proper place to grow, gather and switch off.

It is the latest chapter in a wider story of a pub that has always seen itself as more than a place to drink. Music has sat at the heart of the bar since it opened, with a programme that runs most nights of the week: trad Irish folk sessions on Thursdays, jazz on Wednesdays, Saturday night vinyl DJ sets, and Sunday afternoon live acts in the bar. Upstairs, the Jacobean living room hosts a monthly ukulele jam with Bath Ukulele and weekly life drawing classes with Bath Drawing, alongside space that is regularly given over to community groups, meetings and clubs from across the city.

The upstairs rooms have quietly become a fixture for groups with rather different agendas too. Bath's Greenpeace group meets there monthly, as does People Planet Pint, an existing climate and community meet-up format that has simply made The Grapes its home in the city. A skiffle jam has found its way onto the calendar once a month, and the Bath Trade Union Council holds its closed meeting there monthly as well.

General Manager Ellie Burton, who brings a background in festival and live music programming to the role, said the aim has always been to make the building earn its keep for the whole city, not just its regulars.

“We never set out to become a meeting place for half of Bath, it just sort of happened. Somewhere between the folk sessions, the skiffle jam and people turning up for Greenpeace or the union meeting, you realise the pub is doing exactly what it should be doing, giving people a reason to be in the same room. The allotment is the same idea really, just with mud on it.”

Ellie Burton, General Manager, The Grapes

Those interested in getting involved with Shady Broken Locals can speak to Pete Hardy at The Grapes on Westgate Street, or simply turn up on a Saturday. Details of the pub's full events programme, including its music nights and regular meet-ups, can be found at:

CLICK HERE