BUILT WITH
OUR OWN HANDS
We’re Neil & Lisa
Everything you see at Tipsy Teapot started with two people, a vision and a lot of late nights.
We didn’t hire designers. We became them.
We didn’t hire builders. We learned.
We didn’t take the easy route. We built it our way.
Two venues. One dream. Built from the ground up.
OUR JOURNEY SO FAR
2021
TIPSY TEAPOT KINGS LYNN BEGINS.
While the country was locked down, we were inside an empty building, creating something we hoped people would one day be allowed out to enjoy.
Our first Tipsy. Imagined, designed and built by the two of us – during one of the strangest times imaginable to start a hospitality business.
We couldn’t open the doors yet.
So we built behind them.
2024
Time to dream a little bigger.
Planning, searching and wondering whether doing it all again was a completely brilliant – or completely ridiculous – idea.
2025
The Lincoln transformation begins.
One enormous empty building, a lot of imagination and a very, very long list of jobs.
Time to roll up our sleeves and do it all over again.
2026
Two independent venues.
Thousands of guests. Countless celebrations.
Still independently owned and driven forward by the same two people who created it.
And we’re definitely not finished yet.
FROM EMPTY BUILDINGS TO INCREDIBLE VENUES
Neither of us came from a building or interior design background.
That didn’t seem to stop us.
We’ve painted walls, built bars, hung chandeliers, installed flooring, fixed leaks, designed menus, assembled furniture, created websites and learned an extraordinary number of skills we never expected to need.
There was no design agency deciding what Tipsy should look like.We designed it.
There wasn’t a team of people turning our ideas into reality.
For the most part, we rolled up our sleeves and did it ourselves.
For the most part, we rolled up our sleeves and did it ourselves.
What you see when you walk into Tipsy Teapot came from our imagination, our hands and a slightly unhealthy inability to say…
“That’ll do.”
13 MONTHS. SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.
And very few sensible decisions.
It started during lockdown 2021.
While restaurants and bars across the country were closed, we were inside an empty building in Kings Lynn, seven days a week, creating one.
We had no idea exactly when life would return to normal.
We just knew that when it did, we wanted Tipsy Teapot to be waiting.
For 13 months, this was our life.
Seven days a week. Usually 10-12 hours a day – often longer.
Building. Painting. Fixing things. Taking things down again. Learning jobs we’d never done before and solving whatever problem appeared next.
There were days when we were absolutely shattered.
Days when nothing worked.
Days when we’d spent twelve hours working and somehow seemed to have gone backwards.
We ate at ridiculous times. Slept when we could. Saw rather more of B&Q than we did of our own house.
And then we’d get up the next morning and do it all again.
Not because anybody told us to.
Because we could already see Tipsy Teapot in our heads – even when all that stood in front of us was dust, plasterboard and another bloody ladder.
A FEW THINGS WE
LOST COUNT OF…
1000s
Hours spent building
100s
Tins of paint
Countless
Trips to B&Q
SEVERAL
Ladders
AT LEAST 3
Tape measures
ONE
Healthy sleeping pattern
MOST
Weekends
A significant
Amount of sanity
BUT WHO’S COUNTING?
“Turns out, building your own venues is a brilliant way to discover skills you never knew you needed.”
Would we do it all again?
Apparently, yes. We built Lincoln.
A FEW THINGS WE
LOST COUNT OF…
1000s
Hours spent building
100s
Tins of paint
Countless
Trips to B&Q
SEVERAL
Ladders
AT LEAST 3
Tape measures
ONE
Healthy sleeping pattern
MOST
Weekends
A significant
Amount of sanity
BUT WHO’S COUNTING?
“Turns out, building your own venues is a brilliant way to discover skills you never knew you needed.”
Would we do it all again?
Apparently, yes. We built Lincoln.
Meet The Venues
Kings Lynn
Wonderland Inspired
Where the Tipsy story began.
Our original venue brought together everything we loved — vintage interiors, chandeliers, teapots, great food, cocktails and just the right amount of madness.
Every corner has a story.
And more than a few were created after one of us said…
“I’ve had an idea.”
Chandeliers • Vintage Charm • Tea Parties With Cocktails • Day-to-Night Experience
LINCOLN
Vintage Carnival Inspired
For venue number two, apparently we decided subtlety was overrated.
Lincoln gave us a much bigger canvas — so we filled it with fairground lights, vintage carnival inspiration, a Ferris wheel, a giant flamingo and plenty of unexpected Tipsy touches.
Because if you’re going to do it all again…
You might as well go bigger.
Ferris Wheel Afternoon Tea • Party Parlour • Barnabus Flamingo • DJ-Led Nights
YES… NEIL BUILT
THE WEBSITE TOO.
When we decided Tipsy needed a completely new website bringing both venues together, we could have hired an agency.
Then Neil decided he’d “have a go.”
Several versions later…
Several very late nights…
More coffee than medically recommended…
And one very patient wife…
The website you’re looking at now was born.
Like the venues themselves, it’s been designed and built in-house.
If you like it, let him know.
If you don’t… please keep it to yourself.
WHY WE DO IT
We don’t build Tipsy Teapot because it’s easy. Trust us. It isn’t.
We do it because we love creating places where people make memories.
Birthdays • Hen Parties • Family Lunches • First Dates • Bottomless Brunches • Afternoon Teas • Nights Out
There’s something pretty special about standing inside a venue that once existed only as an idea in your head…
And watching it fill with people laughing, eating, drinking, dancing and celebrating the important moments in their lives.
That’s what makes the dust, paint, late nights and lost weekends worthwhile.
Every time somebody chooses Tipsy Teapot, we’re genuinely grateful.
Because you’re supporting an independent business built by real people.
Not a chain. Not investors. Just us.
THESE DAYS…
THE TOOLS HAVE CHANGED.
THE OBSESSION HASN’T.
You won’t usually find us behind the bar or running the restaurant floor these days. We’ve got brilliant teams for that.
Our job now is to keep pushing Tipsy forward.
New ideas. Better venues. New experiences. New technology. New places.
And the occasional conversation that starts with one of us saying: “I’ve had an idea…”
The other one really should have learned to run by now.
We’re not interested in standing still and admiring what we’ve built.
Still independent. Still hands-on. Still us.
IF YOU SEE US, SAY HELLO.
We’re never too far away, so there’s every chance you’ll still bump into us at Kings Lynn or Lincoln.
If you do, come and say hello.
We genuinely love meeting the people who choose to eat, drink, dance and celebrate in something we created.
And if you’ve got a crazy idea for what Tipsy should do next…
Be careful. We have a habit of actually building them.
SO… WHAT’S NEXT?
We started with an empty building, an idea and absolutely no idea quite how much work we’d just signed ourselves up for.
Now there are two Tipsy Teapots.
Thousands of guests. Countless celebrations. An incredible team of people.
And rather more stories than we could ever fit onto this page.
Are we finished?
NOT EVEN CLOSE.
There’s still plenty we want to create, change, improve and probably make unnecessarily difficult for ourselves.
Thank you for being part of the story so far.
Now let’s see where this thing goes.
Neil & Lisa x