Two of the country’s youngest landlords currently own three pubs in High Wycombe.
Alex Spittles, 24, and his partner, Luke Gregory, 26, are the incumbent proprietors of the Hour Glass, the Antelope and the Bell Vue respectively, with the duo receiving the keys for the first two establishments in August 2022, and the latter in April 2023.
Their acquisition of the three establishments came just one month after their ‘failed’ attempt at running the Phoenix on Bridge Street, which eventually turned into the Station.
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However, Alex told the Free Press that despite their shortcomings in the past, the present ‘is going very well’ and that ‘they are not worrying at the moment.’
He told the Free Press: “It’s always busy but it’s good fun.
“We get many different characters come in and this is nice for me as this is my hometown.
“I started off in Marlow at the Cross Keys when I was 17 and left three days before it shut, then moved to Petersfield in Hampshire to work at the Black Sheep which is where I met my partner.
“We then ended up running two more pubs in Bognor which was an interesting time.
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“After a while, we decided that we had saved enough to start leasing pubs and moved back to Buckinghamshire, and ended up having one failed attempt with the Pheonix, but we took the Hour Glass on, then the Antelope and the Bell Vue.
“The latter was from April this year – the other two were in August last year.
“All three pubs are doing well and they have lots of different characters coming in for different types of reasons.
“Football, music, students…we can pull anyone in.
“You’ve just got to carry on and see how it goes.
“It hasn’t been easy with the rise of the energy or the fact that many brewers are putting their prices up, but, a lot of customers expected it.
“And even though this has changed the way they choose their drink, they still support us and as long as we keep that right, we haven’t got to worry and we’re not worrying at the moment.
"Things are going well."
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One of the current projects at the Hour Glass is tuning the boozer into the official home pub for Wycombe Wanderers fans.
Visited the Hour Glass last night as more fans donated their Wycombe memorabilia to the pub.
— James Richings (@James_BFP) July 6, 2023
It's slowly coming together as framed shirts, flags, scarves, pennants and other relics were put forward.
It'll be a sea of light and dark blue come August.#Chairboys 🟦 pic.twitter.com/Pd51woKSr7
The establishment, which has mainly been used by visiting spectators, has seen several supporters donate their memorabilia ahead of the new season.
So far, numerous scarves, flags, shirts and old newspaper cuttings have been donated.
Alex continued: "It’s brilliant to see.
"We’ve had so many items get donated which has been brilliant and we really want to make this ‘the Wycombe pub’.
"We’ve been blown away by the support."
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