THE manager of one of the best known community pubs in Oxford said she hoped a £100,000 transformation would finally improve its reputation.

Bridgett Harrison-Steele, manager of The Bullnose Morris in Cuddesdon Way, Blackbird Leys, has overseen the division of her pub into separate bar and lounge areas.

Regulars - the pub sees about 1,000 people walk through its doors every week - demanded it returned to having two separate bars in order to keep the noisier working men away from families and people conducting business meetings.

Mrs Harrison-Steele said: "Unfortunately the pub still carries the bad reputation it got years ago. We do get some trouble in here, but no more than any other pub.

"It is a question of getting people in here to see it is not that pub any more."

The pub re-opened on Monday night with a St Patrick's Day celebration complete with Irish stew and traditional dancers.

A new entrance has been created and the pub has new pool tables, four new LCD screens, a new wooden floor, cleaned carpets and a new bar.

A planning application has been submitted for improvements to an outside smoking area.

Mrs Harrison-Steele said: "Now the pub is two pubs in one.

"It was tired, a little outdated and a little worn.

"Regulars were fed up with sitting on furniture that was not looked after and just well worn."

Drinkers at the 450-capacity pub have carved out a reputation for being among the most generous in the city, having helped raise thousands of pounds for charitable causes in recent years.

Mrs Harrison-Steele added: "The pub is a very central part of their life - and a lot of them have been coming in here since it opened 40 years ago.

"For a few of them their whole life revolves around the pub - it is their entertainment and it is their meeting place. It is everything a community pub needs to be."

Regular Anthony Thomas - known as "Quackle" to regulars - was among dozens who gave the renovations the thumbs-up.

Mr Thomas, 45, of Windrush Tower, added: "This pub means everything to me. I have been drinking here since I was 18.

"It is good they have got a dancefloor. I like a bit of dancing."