The Chester Station Tap Room is set to open its doors in just one week, after reaching its £50,000 fundraiser last month.

I met with Daniel Hodge from Spitting Feathers to tour the pub and hear about the work behind the huge project.

Maintaining that the pub's launch date is "set in stone", Daniel acknowledged there is a fair amount of work left to complete.

Having lay empty for a number of years, the building presented various issues when the owners took on the challenge of renovating it.

Being faced with severe water damage from broken pipes, the team had to strip back a lot of the walls upstairs before much of the work could begin.

The pub features a wide range of beers, including 20 keg lines and 8 cask lines (Nub News)

Daniel added: "That is why we had the idea to do the crowdfunding.

"Because we realised it's not just getting a building, opening the doors and sticking a bar in it.

"We had to rip a lot of the existing structure out and rebuild it.

"I'm not surprised it was empty for so long; it took someone with big ambition, for lack of a better term."

At the heart of the mission, Daniel explained, is the consistent passion the team has for beer and a genuine desire to create a community hub.

"We take a lot of the customer feedback on board so the business structure will constantly evolve.

Spitting Feathers opened The Brewery Tap on Lower Bridge Street as its first pub in the city back in 2008 (Nub News)

"What we're doing here is based on the feedback that we get from people.

"It really is a community pub and I think that's something that you don't get a lot of anymore - especially in an area as busy as Chester."

Leading me towards the back of the building, he pointed to a vast open space with no designated use but "heaps" of potential.

Hinting at various ideas, Daniel shared the pub's plans for a potential function space with options for live music or even expanding its brewery operations.

Explaining that these spaces will be developed in time, he said: "The building itself is so fantastic; there's so many little details - like two spiral staircases.

The pub will serve its own beers which are brewed at its own Spitting Feathers brewery (Nub News)

"We want to turn it into a space that we can actually use."

Heading upstairs, I followed Daniel up a traditional spiral staircase towards what will eventually be used as offices.

Bending down to enter the incredibly low doorways, he said: "There was no way people were cracking their heads like this on a daily basis."

Daniel explained that Spitting Feathers' "loyal following" meant they felt pretty confident in hitting the £50,000 fundraiser, but the plateau halfway through did cause some tensions.

He added: "There was a point when we launched the crowdfunding, where it did really well in the first few days and then it just sort of plateaued.

"We did start getting a little bit worried.

The seating areas will have extensive charging ports, encouraging customers to use the space to work as well as socialise (Nub News)

"We were really trying to reprioritize what we were going to do - what changes were going to happen in the building, if we didn't have that influx coming in."

In the final week a number of large donations came through, enabling the team to hit the target a day before the crowdfunding closed.

"You would think we were watching the World Cup in the office," he said.

Pointing to a lack of "quality" facilities currently at the station, Daniel highlighted the necessity of a place like the Station Tap.

The team believe that pubs serve as vital community hubs that bring people together (Nub News)

He said: "I think this area of Chester has been missing something like this for a really long time.

"It's just one of those community spaces that you don't get a lot of anymore.

"I think that's something that I'm personally looking forward to - just having a place that you can go and see the same faces as well as new ones."

For the team behind the new venture, the focus is on creating a community hub, and celebrating good beer, not profit margins, Daniel explained.

"We do need to make money but we aren't just trying to sap profits off of people.

"We're going to try to keep the price of everything really competitive.

Revamping the historic grade II listed building will create 20 jobs in the area (Nub News)

"I do just think it's just going to be a really nice experience," he added.

Looking around at the work left to complete, Daniel emphasised that the completed pub will be symbolic of the community push to get it off the ground.

Daniel said: "It is just going to be something that people who helped.

"I think the people who were involved will just have a really big sense of pride.

"There's a good chance If you walk in here at any given time there will be someone in here that was involved in the crowdfunding.

"I think that excitement is just going to vibrate off of them and will be very infectious around.

"I think we're building a really strong community hub here; It's very exciting."