CAMRA seeks out the best in imaginative pub design
Licensees who think their pub is tops when it comes to design should enter CAMRA's Pub Design Awards.
Held in association with the English Heritage and the Victorian Society, the Campaign for Real Ale scheme recognises pubs' innovative and imaginative design.
Past winners have used the awards to promote their pubs, increase their business and raise their profile.
Previous winners of the awards include the Manor Barn Farm in Southfleet, Kent, the Wortley Almshouses in Peter-borough, the Bell Inn in Notting-ham, and the Smiths of Bourne, Lincolnshire.
Tony Jerome, CAMRA's press manager, said: "It is important that CAMRA gives recognition for innovative and imaginative pub design at a time when our towns are full of pubs with off-the-shelf interiors.
"Anybody can enter a pub into this competition as long as the work on the pub was completed in either 2003 or 2004.
"All of the winners receive plaques and certificates and these awards go a long way to help raise the pubs' profile."
The Pub Design Awards are split into four categories:
- New Build Pub
This category is open to entirely new-built venues. The judges look for a number of details when judging a new pub's worth. It might reflect pubs of the past but without being a mere pastiche of Edwardian, Victorian or even Georgian artefacts. Or it could be completely modern, using 20th or 21st century materials.
Conversion to Pub Use
This is where an existing building is converted to pub use. Pubs are judged on the taste and restraint used on both the outside and inside of the pub.
Refurbished Pub
Refurbishment can range from a complete gutting to replace what was crass and in bad taste with something which now enhances the original.
It should suit the individual pub and not be an excuse to use uniform furnishings to brand the pub with brewery or pub company images.
CAMRA/English Heritage Conservation Award
Sponsored by English Heritage, this award recognises work on a pub which conserves what is good in a pub and ensures that the fabric of the place will survive for further generations of customers.
If you you think you know a pub worthy of one of these awards then please contact Tony Jerome at CAMRA on 01727 867201 or by email at gbal.wrebzr@pnzen.bet.hx for an entry form and explanatory notes. Closing date for entries is Friday April 1, 2005.
Pictured: Wortley Almshouses, winner in 2004 of the best refurbished pub award.
