UK’s best pub designs announced

The Princess Louise on High Holborn, London, and the Castle Inn in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire were both winners in the Refurbished category, while the White Horse in Overton-on-Dee, Wrexham, was highly commended in the same category.

The judges praised the redesign of the Princess Louise (pictured), by Michael Drain Architects, for reintroducing the original multi-bar layout, complete with bar doors and glass ‘snob screens’, while the work on the Castle Inn, by Richard Pedlar Architects, was commended for retaining the Georgian-era pub’s historic features.

The design work on the White Horse, by Joules Brewery, was hailed by the judges as ‘spirited and individual’.

Zero Degrees in Reading, Berkshire, designed by Spacely Designs, was the winner in the New Build category. The judges described the glass-fronted design as ‘strikingly modern’, and also praised the pub for making an architectural virtue of its in-house brewing equipment.

Architectural historian and author Dr Steven Parissien, who was one of the competition judges, says, ‘Amid the gloom and doom of recessional Britain, this past year has, reassuringly, seen a number of first-rate pub schemes, all of which illustrate how pubs can, and should, be treated.’

Camra’s pub design awards, in association with English Heritage and the Victorian Society, were launched in 1983.