Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 19/06/2026 20:29:00

Named after an eighteenth-century artisans' yard and historic alleyway linking Friargate and Market Street West, Chew's Yard is a contemporary food hall, events space and garden in the heart of Preston. The project transformed a disused warehouse and joinery workshop into a single destination where people come to eat, drink and gather, and it has quickly become one of the city's most prominent food-and-drink and entertainment venues. It sits prominently on Market Street West, next door to Preston Playhouse. The venue is built around three interconnected spaces. At its core is a food and drinks hall home to five independent traders, offering a deliberately varied line-up that has included charcuterie and grazing boards, plant-based kebabs and loaded fries, South American street food and pizza. Diners order across the different kitchens and share communal seating, giving the hall the feel of a market rather than a single restaurant. Drinks are handled by an in-house bar, Escapade, which serves curated wines and artisanal cocktails and has partnered with the craft brewery Thornbridge to pour a rotating range of draught beers, including an IPA, a lager and seasonal brews. This pairing of independent food and a dedicated craft-beer and cocktail bar is central to the venue's appeal as a social space. Wrapped around the building is a versatile events room and a leafy walled garden. The events space hosts live music, DJ sets, markets, networking, arts events and private celebrations, while the hidden garden provides a landscaped outdoor courtyard for dining and relaxing in good weather. Together they let Chew's Yard shift between a casual food hall and a programmed entertainment venue. Chew's Yard opened in May 2024, having first trialled the concept as a pop-up the previous year, and generally trades from Thursday to Sunday with extended hours towards the weekend. By reusing redundant industrial buildings and bringing independent traders together under one roof, it has added a distinctive modern social hub to Preston's city centre.