The Queen Hotel up for T&A awards is 'going up and up'

The Queen Hotel, in Thornton Road is one of 10 bars or pubs shortlisted to win the Best Pub 2024 competition being run by the Telegraph & Argus.

Readers were invited to share their favourite watering holes and an amazing 6,389 nominations came in.

These were whittled down to the final 10 and we have published profiles on each of them, including The Queen today, our last from the list.

The Queen Hotel, in Thornton Road (Image: Telegraph & Argus)

The Queen is run by Paula Quigley, 55, who is originally from Manchester.

She said: “When it first came out, I actually thought we came seventh, I thought ‘that’s great’.

“Our customers were saying ‘we’re going to win’”.

Paula added: “You would have to come in this pub, it’s a real good community pub.

“They just get excited about it and asking me ‘when are we going in the T&A’.

“It’s the customers that make the pub.”

The pub is well-loved by locals and the community it serves and Paula says their clientele includes little children who run on the grass outside, 18-year-olds out for their first drink, and regulars in their 80s.

Inside The Queen Hotel (Image: Telegraph & Argus)

An 84-year-old, called ‘Dixie’, is one of these - he used to work at the pub when he was 16 under a long-standing landlady named “Connie”, who is remembered fondly by the pub’s older customers, according to Paula.

She said: “It’s a right good pub.

“It’s like a pub back in the day, in the '80s, when it was really busy.

“It’s the community, they’re a good lot in here, they really are.”

Paula added: “You hear pubs are dying, this one isn’t.

“It’s going up and up all the time.”

Paula runs the pub with her partner, Paul Bentley – known as Benny – 53, who is from Shipley originally.

They met working in the rail industry, where they would travel all around the country, until the couple moved into the pub trade.

A new patio area the pub has installed in time for Euro 2024 (Image: Telegraph & Argus)

It began with The West End, in Batley. That was supposed to be for three days but ended up lasting four years, according to Paula.

The couple then worked as managers at The Queen Hotel from 2013 but took over the Admiral Tavern pub in November 2019.

Paula said: “We just settled here.

“We were in care when we were younger, as kids, we had our families, worked on the railway for 20 years, all over the country.

“I think this is the longest place I’ve lived.”

And what of the future?

Paula thinks she’ll be here for a long time coming, particularly if her punters have anything to do with it.

She said: “They won’t let me leave, they say I’ve got to stay here forever.”