IT CLAIMED to be one of only a handful of pubs in Oxford to serve breakfast.

Whether that was true or not, the Gloucester Arms decided to celebrate in style.

A grey pony and phaeton, with four elegantly-clad Victorian ladies on board, arrived for a Champagne reception to mark the renovation – and novel opening hours – at the pub in Friars Entry in 1984.

Managers had decided to open at 8.15am to offer customers breakfast. The menu ranged from buttered toast to a full English fry-up.

The early bird idea came from the hostelry’s manager, Graham Theobald, 23, and his wife Cathy, 21.

They saw the potential to provide an extra service to early risers as well as boosting trade and profits.

Mrs Theobald said: “It is going to be a start for us at 7am every day of the week, except Sunday, but I am hoping to get a bit of time off in the evening to make up for it.”

She said the aim was to offer pub food, which would also be available at lunchtime and in the evenings, at modest prices.

Customers were apparently impressed by the menu. They rated boiled eggs, buttered toast and a choice of tea or coffee for 60p or a full English breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, fried bread, tomato and toast, with tea or coffee, for £1.50 as good value.

But to keep within the licensing laws, the pub offered only non-alcoholic drinks.

Mrs Theobald said: “We wouldn’t want to sell drinks. It would be the wrong sort of customer who would want alcohol at that time of day.”

The pony, Kim, and phaeton were provided by farmer’s daughter Denea Browne, of Tusmore, near Bicester, whose sister Sapphire was groom.

The Gloucester Arms had been refurbished to stress its Victorian past – it was a pub throughout Queen Victoria’s long reign. Most of its electric lights had been removed and replaced with old-style gas lamps to reflect the period.

According to Derek Honey’s Encyclopaedia of Oxford’s Pubs, Inns and Taverns, a pub with a brewhouse was first recorded on this site in 1825 and was one of five serving Gloucester Green market.

Before 1939, it had swing doors at the entrance to the public bar, but these were always removed during St Giles Fair to avoid congestion.

The pub has always been popular with actors appearing at the New Theatre and Oxford Playhouse.

Among those who left autographed photos were Wilfred Pickles, Dame Sybil Thorndike, Emlyn Williams and Robertson Hare.