The awards, held in association with English Heritage and the Victorian Society, are dedicated to championing pubs which 'demonstrate imagination, vision and a level of restraint in their design'.
The Grade II listed Bell Inn in Rode, Somerset, was the winner of the refurbishment award, picked for its 'calming, historic colour scheme of green, cream orange and brown', and heavy flock wallpaper together with scrubbed down floors and battered old armchairs. It narrowly beat the Royal Oak in Wrexham, whose owners were highly commended for ‘turning around the fortunes of a building which at one point had fallen on hard times.’
Conservation and restoration
This year's English Heritage Conservation Award went to the Sportsman in Huddersfield. Bought by its current owners Mike Field and Sarah Barnes in 2009 when it was almost falling apart, the neo-Georgian style pub's stone exterior and sash windows were sensitively cleaned and repaired to bring it up to scratch.
The team of judges, made up of architects, historians and pub campaigners, awarded station pub The Sheffield Tap winner of the Conversion to Pub Use category following two years of major restoration work, while the Joe Goodwin Award for best street corner local is The Queen's Head in Burnham on Crouch, which with its 'simple furniture and no-nonsense approach to decoration' was seen as a 'hugely welcoming place in which to drink.'
Judge Dr Steven Parissien, an architectural historian and author said: "The Pub Design Awards judges are delighted to be able to highlight this year’s award-winning pubs. All serve as excellent models for the future, and show that even in times of recession, depression and cuts, the traditional pub can still serve both as a beacon for its community and a magnificent advertisement for the best of British."