Pub operator JD Wetherspoon is to open its new pub in Kenilworth, at 8am on Tuesday, 29 July, 2025 – following a £3.2 million development project.

A total of 70 new jobs have been created and the Mayor of Kenilworth Cllr James Kennedy will officially open the new pub at 10am. 

The company is opening the pub on the site of the former Poundland store, at The Square.

When the plans were first announced in July 2022, Wetherspoon said it would be investing £2 million in the project.

The new pub, which will be called The Dictum of Kenilworth, will be managed by Tom Clarke, previously the pub manager at The Spon Gate (Coventry). 

"Myself and my team are looking forward to welcoming customers into The Dictum of Kenilworth and we are confident that the pub will be a great addition to Kenilworth's social scene," he said.

The new pub name recalls that on 31 October 1266, a pronouncement was issued (Dictum de Kenilworth) to reconcile the rebels of the Second Barons' War with the royal government of England.  

The scaffolding has been removed at Kenilworth's new Wetherspoon (image by Nub News)

After the baronial victory at the Battle of Lewes (1264), Simon de Montfort had taken control of the royal government, but was later killed at the Battle of Evesham (1265), with Henry III restored to power.  

However, a group of rebels, whose resistance proved difficult to crush, held out in the stronghold of Kenilworth Castle.  

The Dictum of Kenilworth pub will be open from 8am until 11pm Sunday to Thursday and from 8am until 12midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Food will be served throughout the day, from opening until 11pm every day. 

The new pub will "specialise" in real ales and traditional ciders, as well as craft and world beers, serving a wide range of different draught ales, as well as bottled beers, including those from local and regional brewers.

It will be open for family dining, with children, accompanied by an adult, welcome in the pub up until 9pm, throughout the week. 

The pub will be wheelchair accessible and have a specially adapted toilet for people with disabilities.

The new pub features an outside area (1,300 sq ft) on the ground floor.

Historical photos and details of local history, as well as artwork and images of local scenes and characters of the area, are also displayed in the pub, together with artwork commissioned by local artists. 

Also on display are various trebuchet balls, of differing sizes, discovered during pathway restoration works at Kenilworth Castle.

Historically verified to date back to the great Siege of Kenilworth (at the end of which the Dictum of Kenilworth was drafted and signed), the artefacts are on loan from English Heritage. 

The unit at The Square had been empty since January 2020.