Hamish Champ: The joys of the 'pop up pub'

Some friends I was visiting in an unfamiliar part of South London recently took me to what I understand to be called a 'pop up pub'.

I don't mean 'pop up' as in those new-fangled tents that you just take out of the bag, lay on the ground, stand back and 'voila', they've erected themselves. Bloomin' handy, mind you.

No. I mean a pub that has been taken over by a new owner and until they can sort out what they're going to do with it they simply give it a bit of a dusting down, change the lighting a bit, bring in some quirky furniture, some bric-a-brac and whatnot.

And hey presto, what was once an unwelcoming-bordering-on unpleasant place to enter - not to put too fine a point on it - is now a busy, vibrant, friendly pub, attracting people from quite a distance.

Why? Because the place had a buzz about it that had been totally absent in its previous incarnation. Same building, same surroundings, just a different operator with a different way of doing things appealing to a whole new market that couldn't get enough of the place. Marvellous.

Of course it can work the other way as well. A popular pub can change hands and despite the best intentions of the incoming owners the locals just don't take to the new order and before you know it the pub's on its knees.

I know lots of people who have at one time or another reckoned they could run their local better than the incumbent licensee. I have never made this mistake. For the very reason I love pubs I wouldn't want to run one.

What I love about great licensees is their passion for acting as a host to people who walk through the door of their establishment, be they locals who pop in every day or strangers whom they might never see again.

All too often it is easier to recall a bad experience in a pub - poor service, dodgy beer, toilets that wouldn't look out of place in the Middle Ages. But every now and again one finds one's self in a boozer that hits all the right buttons and where the memory of it lingers on for all the right reasons.

We all know that pubs are closing all over the country and that there are plenty of reasons why this is the case. On my visit to the aforementioned 'pop up pub' it was gratifying to see an operator breathing new life into what might soon have been turned into a betting shop, had he not come along.

A bit of hard graft, some 'nous' as to what his customer base was all about and how to cater for it, combined with a convivial atmosphere, was what appears to have worked its magic in this case.

Such an approach surely isn't beyond the wit of most people. Is it?