The Old Ship is a local, independently run pub in the heart of historic Limehouse, London. It bills itself as a friendly pub which is open to all, and has weekly cabaret nights which draw a large and diverse crowd.
I started looking at the Old Ship’s digital presence a year ago when frequenting the pub as my local. It is a gem of a community hub which attracts a friendly local crowd. However, looking at their current website at http://www.oldship.net/ it is easy to see how it could be overlooked by people in the local and LGBT community alike.
With the closure of so many LGBT friendly venues I wanted to support this local community asset and ensure it continues to attract new custom. One way to do this would be to drink more, but this may be at odds with other life goals. Instead, I’ve taken the opportunity to work volunteer my technical skills and help pub landlord John Fell to develop the online presence of The Old Ship pub.
The first stage of this is to build a new website for the Old Ship to make the pub more visually appealing, promote what is there and connect more with the community – particularly younger customers. The current work in progress is being developed alongside my day job and other commitments, and can be previewed at http://oldship.darrenbeaumont.co.uk/ . This version is now ready for testing. Watch this space for more updates. Any (constructive) feedback is welcomed via the comments.