Focus on some of Britain’s best heritage pubs
RENOWNED Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) author Geoff Brandwood has produced a unique guide identifying the best of British heritage pubs.
The book, which accumulates 25 years of CAMRA’s research, explores 260 UK pubs mainly concentrating on parts of the North West, London and the West Midlands.
CAMRA first started the project after concern over the loss of historic pub interiors and have worked with English heritage to increase the publicity of these pubs in hope of protecting their heritage.
Author, Geoff Brandwood said: “Very few pubs have really genuine historic interiors so we set about doing this work to identify them and we’ve brought it all together now in this rather handsome book.”
“If they have got important historic interiors and the more people we can get to visit these pubs then the more chance they have of surviving really.
“Although many pubs are very old, really it’s unusual to find interiors in terms of fitting and seating prior to the end of the late 19th century.”
Despite the rare nature of heritage pubs, part of one of the oldest pubs featured in the book is still intact from the 17th century.
“Well the one I was mentioning, perhaps The George, sets a record in terms of its woodwork and so on, but one of the most interesting we know of is one called the Victoria which is near to Paddington station where there’s a dated clock from 1864 in the bar back.
We think the whole scheme probably is dated from that time, but as I said it is quite unusual to find interiors of that age.”
Featured pubs all have either an unaltered interior for over 70 years or contain rooms of national significance.
“A good pub of course has to have a welcoming atmosphere, good beer, hopefully have good food and better still, the ones that we’re featuring here genuine sense of tradition and history about it.
“There are lots of people who do value these pubs and they do seek them out, one of the things we’ve included in the book is a tick-list for people visiting them. Some people have visited hundreds of these pubs and you know, it’s incredibly gratifying, but one of the book’s strengths is the visuals.”
