Refurbishment & interiors: case study - the Hand & Spear
There is a chunk of the pub industry that's a fashion business. Every few years these pubs have to go through a refurb and a repositioning to make sure they stay ahead of the game and remain the place to go among the younger end of the market.
But there are also many pubs that deliberately step out of this way of thinking, and can stay more of less the same for decades, even hundreds of years.
The Hand & Spear, on the outskirts of Godalming, Surrey, was a pub of the first sort. Orginally a shooting lodge, it became an upmarket hotel before being bought by the old Benskins Brewery some 30 years ago and converted into fashionable category of pub known to the new breed of licensed retail marketeers as a YPV, or young person's venue.
When Benskins became part of Allied Domecq the pubco made it a Firkin, and when Allied broke up Mitchells & Butlers took it over, thinking it would make an ideal hard rock venue.
By July of last year, when Young's came on the scene, that concept, too, had run its course and the once splendid listed building was sadly boarded up and shamed by a bad reputation.
Young's, armed with cash from the sale of its brewery, saw the site's potential from a different perspective to previous owners. Its own attempts in the 1990s to develop fashionable destinations not being particularly successful, it's now fully committed to creating modern pubs that are going to last, something that it's acquired a knack for over the last couple of hundred years.
The £1.2m project was overseen by area manager Nigel Holliday and in-house senior building surveyor Ed Hazard. "We knew the local market, and we knew that a better quality pub with a good dry offer could work," says Nigel. "There are a lot of students around here - but it's also one of the most expensive areas to live in the whole UK!"
"Our ethos here is style," adds Ed. "This is still very much a pub, but one that's a bit different."
The clever thing about the Hand & Spear's design is the way that a large rambling interior has been turned to an advantage without making any structural changes.
Existing columns have been used to mark the boundaries of zones. Each part of the pub has a different feel, and people can seek out the spot they feel comfortable in.
Walk in through the main entrance and you are immediately hit by a huge quality cue - a display of wines with champagne prominent. Enough to deter any wandering student.
But turn to your left and you have a fairly coventional pub bar, in the same place it's always been, with Wells & Young's ales on the handpumps.
Make your way through to the back of the back and you'll go through those different zones, and there's always something to catch your eye - bespoke furniture, a high-tech fireplace, vases of flowers, bits of sculpture, pictures reflecting the history of the pub and its association with the Brooklands motor racing track nearby.
On your way to the toilets you pass a spacious open kitchen, formerly the cellar. As well as being able to see the food appear at the front, customers can also watch the work going on through windows in the corridor that runs down the side. Off-putting for the workers possibly, but hopefully reassuring for diners.
The room at the back which used to be the toilets was a revelation. A grand old fireplace was opened up to be the centrepiece of a formal dining room that can be hired for dinner parties.
As much thought has gone into the gardens. With an outdoor bar and barbecues planned it's bound to be a massive attraction in the summer - and for many years to come.
