Somerville Arms, Leamington Spa

This back-street local was refurbished in 1956 and remained little altered until in 2010 Everards carried out, by their usual standards, a very restrained refurbishment at the insistence of the licensee. A long public bar runs along the front of this back-street local: until the 1950s it would have been two rooms, hence the fireplaces at each end. In the public bar Everards did remove the 1950s bar counter and bar back and replaced them but the fixed seating was just cleaned up and re-polished, the two 1950s brick fireplaces were shot-blasted and now look immaculate and some new tiles were added in the left hand area.

A central corridor leads to the back of the pub where there is a 'smoke room', actually a small lounge. The lounge has retained its 1950s sturdy bar counter and bar back fitting, the 1950s bench seating and baffles; also the 1950s style brick fireplace was just shot-blasted. The toilets have been modernized with the only remaining old fitting a c.1970 Ansells mirror in the gents’. It does therefore mean that although there is nothing architecturally memorable or that historic about the fittings, this interior has a no-nonsense simplicity which is, sadly, becoming increasingly rare.