New ‘quirky’ Phileas Fogg and Mad Hatter themed bar serving ‘tiddly teas’ set to open in Northampton

Liz Cox and her partner at their new venue.

A landlady is setting up a new ‘quirky’ bar in Northampton which will specialise in ‘tiddly teas’.

Liz Cox, who currently runs the Old Five Bells in Kingsthorpe, will leave her post in August this year ahead of opening her new business.

Named ‘The Eccentric Englishman’, the establishment will be based in the old measures and weights building in St Giles Street, between The Optimist and The Wig & Pen.

Cocktails for the 'tiddly teas' will be served in china teapots.

The building has remained vacant since the gin bar, Gin & Temple, closed in October last year having only been open for just over a year.

Liz and her partner picked up the keys to the venue last week and have big plans to decorate the place in a ‘unique way’, as well as build a bar.

The businesswoman said: “We’ve been thinking about it for a couple of years now and we’ve thought about setting up on our own for quite a while.

“We’ve spent a long time making successful businesses for other people. We’ve decided it’s time for us now; time to put our family first.

“St Giles Street was really the only place we wanted to set up.

“Other places just didn’t feel right and St Giles is flourishing, so I think it will be good.

“We spoke to a lot of people before taking this on and everyone said it sounded great and that it’s just what Northampton needs - somewhere a bit different.

“The building was built in 1872 and that’s when Phileas Fogg set off. That’s where the inspiration came from.

“We thought it was gimmicky and we’re quite quirky anyway, so it will be my take on Phileas Fogg crossed with Mad Hatter.”

Prior to taking the reins at the Old Five Bells, Liz used to live in Lanzarote where she started baking cheesecakes and pavlovas, which proved popular and will now be part of the new ‘tiddly teas’.

The boozy afternoon teas will include a choice of cocktails - named after famous people from Northamptonshire like Princess Diana and Alan Carr - to be served in a china teapot and drank from a china tea cup, with a saucer.

As well as the ‘tiddly teas’, which Liz hopes the bar will be known for, she will also serve a picnic served on a gingham tablecloth and a ‘gentleman’s tea’, which will include scotch eggs, pork pies, ale and more.

Liz added: “We’re hoping to focus on the day time and early evening crowd, rather than being a late night venue.

“We want to aim for the theatre crowd, so during the week I think we will close by 8pm and then no later than 10pm at the weekend.

“Eventually we also hope to hire the whole place out for events and parties.

“We’ll also serve coffees, knickerbocker glories and more and we will try to use local stockists wherever possible.”

In total, the venue will be able to seat up to 80 people, with the upstairs themed around a ‘gentleman’s drawing room’ for the ‘gentleman’s tea’.

Downstairs will be botanical themed and will be home to the ‘tiddly teas’, as well as a piano where live 1920s music will often be played.

Liz hopes to open the venue in mid-September this year.

To find out more, visit ‘The Eccentric Englishman’ Facebook page.