Last orders for popular Doncaster town centre pub today

The Old Angel on Cleveland Street will close down after being sold by owners Wetherspoon earlier this year.

However, the pub is set to re-open with a new look later this year after being given a massive refurbishment and overhaul by its new owners.

Blackpool-based Amber Taverns has snapped up the bar - fornerly Yates's Wine Lodge - and the pub is understood to be shutting its doors for seven months while the redevelopment takes place.

Team leader Rachel Hague said: "It will be a sad day when we close - the end of an era. Quite a few of us have worked here for a few years so its going to seem strange all going our separate ways and saying goodbye to the pub."

Approximately 20 staff from the Old Angel will be redeployed to other Wetherspoon pubs across Doncaster including the Red Lion in the Market Place, Gate House in Priory Walk as well as the firm's pubs in Mexborough and at Robin Hood Airport.

She said that no staff would be losing their jobs as a result of the closure and added that the pub would be closed for a total of 28 weeks while the refit takes place.

The pub, on the corner of Cleveland Street and Printing Office Street, originally opened in the summer of 1997 as Yates's Wine Lodge.

The distinctive building, with its turreted tower, was built on the site of a row of shops, which were demolished to make way for the new watering hole.

The row was known as King Charles Terrace - and a garden in the street was said to have contained a pear tree, planted by King Charles I, hence the name.

The Old Angel was one 34 across the country put up for sale by the Wetherspoon chain last November.

Commercial real estate services and investment firm CBRE handled the disposal of the pubs which it said have an average weekly turnover of more than £22,000 per week.

A spokesman for Amber Taverns said that plans for the pub were "still in discussion" and added: "All I can confirm at this stage we will be investing in the business and it will remain a pub."

The chain has 107 pubs across the north west, north east, Midlands and Wales and already owns The Black Bull in Doncaster Market Place and The Tumbler in Edlington.

The company's website says: "We are passionate about our public houses and the communities that they serve. We ensure that they are refurbished to a very high standard and offer a fantastic drinks selection and audio visual package including the full Sky Sports portfolio."

The chain serves up brands such as John Smiths, Fosters, Kronenbourg, Guinness and Strongbow, as well as "the best selling bottled beers and alcopops as well as a great selection of wine and soft drinks."

Earlier this year, journalists at the Doncaster Free Press, which has its premises next door to the pub, had to work from the bar after being locked out of their office.

Staff decamped to the bar to work in March after finding the front door buckled and leaving them stranded outside while police and a locksmith investigated the incident.