Charlie’s pub last ditch attempt to keep doors open and change to events space after decline in customers

A Peterborough pub owner - who has ploughed her life savings and pension into renovating Charlie’s pub in Woodston - is giving pub-goers a choice to use it or risk closure at Christmas.

Marija Obradovic, named the independent pub after her dad, Charlie, who was a regular when he arrived in Peterborough, from Serbia, after WW2, in 1945.

The pub is steeped in so many special memories for Marija, who lived on Palmerston Road, for 56 years.

She felt so fondly of the Swiss Cottage building, from her childhood days, that she and her business partner, Paul Richards, outbid developers by £10,000 to buy it.

“It used to be all older people who drank here and their families,” Marija said, reminiscing of days gone by spent with her parents and brothers.

The pub was purchased in 2019 and - without backing from a brewery - it has meant Marija and Paul have invested all they have into making the pub thrive.

“Me and Paul outbid the developers to buy this, it was going to be knocked down and made into flats,” she told the Peterborough Telegraph.

“We were part of the campaign group to stop developers knocking down the Cherry Tree pub as well - but we couldn’t stop it. This would have gone that way, however, me and Paul overbid the developers. We put our own savings in.”

It was a labour of love for the pair who even roped in coach Marija’s football team to help decorate.

Exactly one year later, to the day in 2020, the sun started to slowly set on their dreams as pub doors closed across the country due to lockdown.

“It hit me really hard, I got really down about it but I am an upbeat person," she said.

Undeterred, Marija and Paul saw this as an opportunity to continue renovating the pub and adding safety features - like a doorbell system - after, the landlady and Peterborough Pub Watch member said she wanted to stop unpleasant drinking and football hooligan culture.

Now, previous stigma, footfall and cost of living has taken its toll on Charlie’s, so-much-so, Marija is doing all she can to save her beloved Woodston pub before she gives customers an ultimatum: use it or by Christmas it will be gone.

‘We need to get more people in’

“We can’t shake off this stigma that this is ‘rough and ready’, unless you’re a new person who has just moved into the area, they walk in with fresh eyes," she added.

“We need to move on and we need to get more people in. I can’t do it myself.”

In the meantime, the pub boss has her sights on a new future for Charlie’s and is currently turning the function room into an event space - fitting it with a disabled toilet, shower and kitchen for private hire.

Or, it can be rented by an existing small business who want to expand what they’re doing and make it into their very own cafe.

The family-run pub, which is managed by Marija, her partner and her in-laws, who volunteer as cooks and baristas, is operated for regulated hours: for five hours on a Friday, 2-7, and five hours on a Saturday, 2-7.

During the week, it’s open for private functions, including wakes and christenings – which she wants to spread the word about and can take bookings for.

‘We can make our own little part of happiness around here’

“But we are businesses who are all trying to work together and we are trying to change our little part of Woodston. We’ve now become a Neighbourhood Watch area and the culture is creeping along.

“I love it here, when I come here it’s just brilliant,” she said smiling. “It’s like a sanctuary, a haven for people and it’s quiet, there’s no jukebox, no fruit machines and this place is tranquil.

“We don’t have live bands as we are sat within the community and we work with them, for them.

“My mother-in-law works with me, it’s all voluntary, we really, really enjoy it, we have such a laugh together.

“I can’t put forward a tremendous idea that will save the world but I can save my little corner. I tell everyone this and then I smile, we can make our own little part of happiness around here.”

To book a private event or to enquire about renting the function room, email [email protected].