While steampunk has been around for years (the first steampunk convention took place in 2006), those looking for pubs or bars themed around this Victoriana-meets-steam-powered-technology trend currently need to travel abroad. However, if Kit Churchward’s current Crowdfunder campaign is a success, then the very first British steampunk bar could be opening in Bristol in the summer of 2015.
Churchward has turned to crowdfunding to source the £20,000 that he needs to open The Clockwork Rose: a bar set to look like it has “jumped straight from the pages of a Jules Verne or H.G. Wells novel.” Should the money be raised successfully, Bristol residents and visitors will be treated to a central Bristol bar that will merge exposed brickwork and copper pipes with other retro-futuristic touches that, he claims, will “blur the line between fiction and reality.”
Says Churchward, “With the fact that the great Brunel is a heavy part of our rich history anything Steampunk in this area of Britain is a direct nod to him and his genius as well as the novels and creations of Jules Verne and HG Wells.
“The Clockwork Rose will marry the modern day Bristol with the 18th century version, using locally based talents wherever possible. We plan to use artists, brewers and distillers and restoration experts to create a wonderful vision of a Neo-Victorian, industrial world in a unique bar that will be the first of its kind in Britain.”
People are encouraged to pledge money to help Churchward to get his vision off the ground, with everyone who pledges £5 or more being treated to a sliding scale of rewards that get even more impressive the more you pledge.
To find out more about The Clockwork Rose, visit their Crowdfunder page, find them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.
[…] was all the way back in February 2015 that we posted news of a Crowdfunder campaign from Kit Churchward, who was aiming to raise the […]