Where Did the Money Come From? Fair Question.

It's one we get asked a lot, and we don't mind it at all. Taking on a place this size and spending over a million pounds doing it up is bound to make people wonder. We've heard a few guesses - everything from a gaming firm to who-knows-what - so here's the straight answer.

The money comes from software. For years we've built and run a software business that makes the computer systems housing organisations use to manage their homes and tenants. It's not glamorous and you'll never have heard of it, but it does well, and it's what's paying for the club.

That's also, we reckon, where some of the daft rumours come from. "Software" and "housing" in the same sentence has somehow turned into "they're building houses" or "they're some big tech outfit." Neither's true. The software business is its own thing, run completely separately, and the club is exactly what we say it is - a bar, a function room and somewhere for the community.

The honest truth is the club isn't really a money-making scheme at all. It's something we wanted to do - to take a building that mattered to this area and bring it back to life, properly, without cutting corners. The software pays the bills. The club's the bit we're doing because we want to.