Press Release
One of the ‘longest bars in Britain’ takes home CAMRA’s Pub Design Award
The Bowland Beer Hall
The Campaign for Real Ale has revealed the very best pub designs across Britain, which includes one of the ‘longest bars in Britain’, a 1930s neo-Georgian roadhouse, a former Victorian coffeehouse and a tastefully modern new build pub.
The Bowland Beer Hall in Lancashire, which boasts one of the‘longest bars in Britain’ at 105 feet with 42 hand pulls, will be awarded at an event open to the press on 22 March at 2pm.
The Bowland Beer Hall has been awarded the “conversion to pub use” award after it was splendidly converted from a former textile mill by local architect Charles Stanton. It is now the centrepiece of a larger regeneration scheme, which already includes an impressive food hall showcasing regional produce and plans for a future gym and hotel.
Winners from the other categories include the Greenwood in Northolt, Middlesex – a historic high street landmark which has taken home the “conservation” award. Still as much of a hub for the local community as it was in 1939, the fine, sympathetic conservation work executed at this pub shows how subtlety and respect can often achieve more than big-budget transformation.
Meanwhile in central London, two separate pubs caught the judges’ eyes for very different reasons. The Fitzroy Tavern in Fitzrovia won this year’s “refurbishment” award, following Samuel Smith’s work to return the pub to its 1897 guise, representing the height of the late Victorian pub-building boom.
The Sail Loft in Greenwich also took home the rarely-given “new build” award for its tasteful display of modern design, setting a wonderful example of “how to do it well” with floor-to-ceiling glazing, finishes of decent quality, a well-crafted island servery and very pleasant seating.
The London-based pubs will be awarded at a separate event taking place at the Fitzroy Tavern on 20 March at 1pm.
Sean Murphy, CAMRA’s Pub Design Awards coordinator says: “Our 2017 winners celebrate an enormously wide variety of building styles and contexts – from a modern new build to a historic high street landmark, from a textile mill conversion to a Victorian restoration. The sheer diversity of these winners, and their evident commercial success, shows just how vibrant a pub can be – and what an agent of regeneration it can provide – if treated with respect and sensitivity for both building and clientele.”
The Pub Design Awards of 2017 aimed to find the most stunningly designed pubs in the UK. The awards, held in association with Historic England, recognise high standards of architecture in the refurbishment and the conservation of existing pubs.
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