IN THESE days of bean counting, closures and mass redundancies – it’s nice to find a place where that trend has been bucked.

Pubs have been especially vulnerable during this time and the sight of so many lying derelict is enough to bring a lump to the throat of this column.

But gadzooks and forsooth is this a new pub I see before me? It is – and, by gad, what a bloody good one it is too!

Ladies and gentlemen pray turn your attention to The Shakespeare in Williamson Square.

“Eh?” I can hear some readers chunnering under their breath. “Has the soft get completely lost his marbles? The Shakey closed years ago.”

Indeed it did. On February 14, 1994, to be precise. This we know because Carol Griffiths was the landlady on that very date when a structural engineer, who had been down in the cellar, re-emerged to shout “Everybody out!!!”.

“It was because of subsidence,” explains Carol today. “The customers barely had time to sup up.”

And that was that. The cellar was filled in and the wrecking ball did the rest. Which was a shame because I liked the cosy old Shakey a lot and many a session was had there especially before some legendary gigs at the Royal Court, REM among them.

Carol, too, never lost her soft spot for the place. She’s literally been in pubs all her life: mum and dad, Joe and Nellie Moore, owned a pub in Paddington on the edge of the city centre and Carol stepped up to pull her first pint aged just nine years. Since then she’s been mine hostess at many others including the Lion Tavern on Tithebarn Street.

But she always thought last orders were called too soon on the Shakespeare and her tenure could have lasted longer. Her chance to give it an unlikely second shot, though, came when the elegant glass and breezeblock retail unit which had been built in its place came up for grabs. After she and her amiable cockney hubbie Billy secured a 25-year lease and had change of usage approved by the planning committee, they wasted no time on getting to work on their baby.

Just six weeks later, after a heap of intensive redesign work supervised by Daniel Waugh and the curtain came up on new Shakespeare at 10 to three on November 6, 2008.