Festival Inn, Trowell

A provisional licence for the Festival Inn was granted on 10 March 1953 and made permanent on 15 February 1956.

"The archives have a block plan, elevations and sections, by W. B. Starr, Hall and Clifford, but no detailed plans. Dating from February 1953, they are still rather 1930s in style, with flat roofs, an imposing symmetrical entrance and a long elevation with tall, narrow windows. Above a basement cellar, there was an ‘L’-shaped plan comprising a lounge on the long elevation, with its own entrance and lavatories at one end) with the public bar set at right angles reached by the main entrance only. The landlord’s flat is on top of the entrance block, and on the north elevation in particular were many low, single-storey ranges.

This public house was largely overclad and greatly extended in 1995, and given pitched roofs, but proudly remained open all through the building work – showing that it was not entirely rebuilt (see my photograph in Harwood and Powers, eds., The Festival of Britain, p.162.)

The pub in its original form was of historic significance because of its relatively early date (1953-6) and associations. Trowell was selected as the ‘Festival Village’ in 1951, controversially chosen because it typified ‘Britain as it is today’ rather than for its beauty (there are no papers at the National Archives suggesting how this selection came about). Its residents held a busy programme of sporting events, tours and a pageant in order to raise money, they said, to build a public house. Although the pub is barely recognisable following overcladding and extensions in 1995, the connection with the Festival of Britain is commemorated by plaques in the car park and at the entrance to the village, and its loss may serve to strengthen the case for listing the original Festival Inn at Lansbury (Elain Harwood/Historic England).

As at November 2017, the freeold for the Festival Inn (NT292175) was held by the Spirit Pub Company (Managed) Limited (Reg. No. 5269240), a subsidiary of Greene King.

[Broxtowe Borough Council; Awsworth, Cossall & Trowell Ward / Broxtowe Parliamentary Constituency]