A castle, a tap and an old bridge have all scooped honours in the prestigious Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Pub Design Awards.
CAMRA has announced the winners of its Pub Design Awards 2015, run in conjunction with English Heritage. Winners include The Castle at Edghill in Oxfordshire, The Old Bridge in Leeds, The Harrogate Tap in North Yorkshire and The Wallaw in Northumberland.
Sean Murphy, Pub Design Awards judge and competition organiser:
“The pub design awards celebrate the architects, designers and pub owners who have the bravery and vision to go above and beyond when restoring, conserving or designing pub buildings. From the preservation of ornate Victorian features in Leeds, to the sensitive restoration of a pub in a gothic style castle in Oxfordshire – the Pub Design Awards recognise the importance of fantastic design in pubs across the breadth of the UK.”
The Castle at Edgehill
This year The Castle at Edgehill in Oxfordshire has won both a Refurbishment and Conservation award. This historic, listed Gothic folly-castle of the mid-1740s, designed by architect Sanderson Miller for himself (on the site where King Charles I’s standard-bearer planted the royal arms before the first battle of the Civil War of 1642), has been a prominent landmark on this famous ridge for almost three centuries.
A second Refurbishment award goes to The Old Bridge at Kirkstall, Leeds. Effectively the brewery tap of local Kirkstall Brewery, the pub retains its Victorian features and quirky bars but has at the same time been given a very contemporary makeover, with beer and brewery ephemera – all of which has been salvaged from other, less fortunate, mostly closed pubs – bedecking the walls.
Conversion to Pub Use
This year there are two Conversion to Pub Use Highly Commended awards. The Harrogate Tap at Harrogate Station, North Yorkshire is sited in the last remaining fragment of Thomas Prosser’s Harrogate Station of 1862, which is still owned by Network Rail. Half a million pounds has been spent demolishing unsightly extensions, re-roofing the old brick building and renovating the interior of what had once been the old station bar and refreshment room.
Also Highly Commended in the Conversion category was The Wallaw, Blyth, Northumberland. This splendid, brick-faced former 1930s cinema (named after its first owner, Walter Lawson) has been converted to a marvellous pub by J D Wetherspoon.
The Winners
The Castle at Edgehill
Winner in the Refurbishment Category
Winner in the Conservation Category
The Old Bridge Inn
Winner in the Refurbishment Category
The Harrogate Tap
Highly Commended in the Conversion to Pub Use Category
The Wallaw
Highly Commended in the Conversion to Pub Use Category
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