Designs for the new face of renovated Shipmans pub in the Drapery unveiled

Northampton's Shipmans pub is set for a new look by the end of the year.

The new face of a dilapidated Northampton town centre pub set to reopen this year has been teased as part of planning papers

The Shipmans pub has looked worse for wear for the past six years. After closing down in 2014, the three-storey pub has stood looking gradually more weathered and unloved on The Drapery ever since.

But now, designs for the 18th-century pub's new look have been put to Northampton's planning committee.

The pub closed in 2014 and has spent the past six years looking worse for wear.

It comes after McManus Pubs - which also runs The Fox and Hounds in Kingsthorpe and The Pickering Phipps on Wellingborough Road - announced it aimed to have Shipmans open again by mid-2020.

The new designs aim to repaint the pub in blue and white, replace all the aging above the door and hang a new barrel on the Market Square side of the business.

New signs say the renovated pub will specialise in traditional food and craft beer.

The pub was taken over by the McManus Pub Company in 2015 and is has undergone refurbishment for nearly five years.

It was built in 1790 by the Shipman family and is a narrow, three-storey building that is Grade Two listed.