heritage | INVENTORY OVERHAUL VERSION
Star-studded pubs
REPRO OP
CAMRA’s Pub Heritage Group has made changes to the way it classifies the UK’s most important historic pub interiors, resulting in hundreds more must-visit pubs being highlighted, as Paul Ainsworth reports PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL SLAUGHTER LRPS
SUBS
Since 1992, the group has been
ART PRODUCTION CLIENT
compiling listings of historic interiors. It first created a tier of pubs with ‘historic interiors of national importance’, then one of ‘historic interiors of regional importance’ and, lastly, ‘historic interiors of some regional importance’. The group has now decided to implement a simpler system – a single inventory of UK pubs with grades of three, two and one stars. A CAMRA Three Star Real Heritage Pub is one that has stayed wholly or largely intact for the past 50 years, retains particular rooms or features that are truly rare or exceptional – or displays a combination of the two. A Two Star Real Heritage Pub has an interior where the intactness and quality levels will be somewhat lower than for a Three Star. One Star Real Heritage Pubs have either readily identifiable historic layouts or retain rooms or features of significant interest but more significant changes are allowable.
Aberdeen’s Blue Lamp was refitted in the 1960s with a Formica bar top
A particular change of note is the age criteria. Previously, pubs that had been altered since 1945 were not eligible for the top tier. Now, pubs can qualify for Three Star status if they are essentially unaltered for 50 years. Consequently, a number of great pubs have entered the higher echelons. Here, we highlight seven of the new must-visit pubs and more will feature in future articles. We begin in Aberdeen, at the Blue Lamp, a famed music venue. The
interior was refitted around 1960 and has hardly changed since. The main, U-shaped bar sports many features redolent of the age – a panelled counter with a black Formica top, a gantry with mirrored back and glass shelves, and leatherette fixed seating. The first-floor lounge has ply-panelled walls and a similar servery and seating. It’s a genuine time-warp bar. Down the east coast we go, to Colpitts Hotel in Durham, built in 1836. The four-roomed interior has developed over the years, the late-Victorian servery in the main bar being especially fine. However, in around 1955, a new opening was made into the room in the apex and changes were made to the fixed seating, which debarred the pub from the top tier. Few would argue, though, that what you see now looks thoroughly traditional. The Derbyshire Dales are our next stop, and the historic Barley Mow Inn in the charming village of Kirk Ireton. The pub has only had two owners in the past 100 years, which no doubt
From left: Colpitts Hotel in Durham boasts a fine Victorian servery; Barley Mow has had just two owners over past 100 years 42 BEER SUMMER 2022
BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN
