The Building Conservation Directory 2023

U S E F U L I N F O R M AT I O N 6 175 C AT H E D R A L C O M M U N I C AT I O N S T H E B U I L D I N G C O N S E R VAT I O N D I R E C T O R Y 2 0 2 3 | C E L E B R AT I N G 3 0 Y E A R S have little compunction in pursuing such developments. Again, we have to look to the planning system to resist these attempts to make a quick buck. One great hope for the future lies with community pub ownership. This is quite a recent phenomenon, the first such pub being the Red Lion, in Preston, Hertfordshire, bought by villagers in 1983 to save it being converted into a carvery. The next twenty years saw only a few more come along but the high-profile reopening of the Old Crown, Hesket Newmarket, Cumbria under the co-operative model gave the sector a boost. The next milestone was the Localism Act 2012 which introduced Assets of Community Value and the community right to bid. Around the same time, the Plunkett Foundation launched its community pubs advice service with government support, and they continue to provide invaluable assistance to community groups. Even so, progress was relatively sedate and by 2017 CAMRA was aware of only 56 community owned pubs (COPS). Since then however, there has been a significant acceleration, the current count being 156 COPS with a further 23 run by local people. An amazing statistic around COPS is that, so far, they have a 100 per cent success rate. The reasons are perhaps not hard to understand. People in the community with a direct stake in the business will obviously support it and encourage others to do so. More importantly, community-owned pubs are directly tuned into the needs and wants of their customers, the whole community regarding the pub as their own, generating levels of loyalty and commitment that other pubs can only dream of. At the moment, only two NI pubs are community-owned: the Kings Head (Low House), Laxfield, Suffolk and the Golden Ball, York, but we can expect others to follow as this operating model continues to grow in popularity. PAUL AINSWORTH has been an active CAMRA member for over 40 years and chair of the Pub Heritage Group since 2004. His favourite pub is the Seymour Arms, Witham Friary, Somerset. For more information about the National Inventory and heritage pubs in general, please visit pubheritage.camra.org.uk . The site includes details of CAMRA’s publications – regional guides to inventory pubs plus the flagship book, Britain’s Best Real Heritage Pubs . Listed Category C by Historic Scotland in 2008, the Laurieston Bar, Glasgow is a rare survival of a public house with an almost completely intact interior and exterior decorative scheme dating from the 1960s. The snug of the King’s Head or the Low House, Laxfield, Suffolk, with casks on stillage in the cellar beyond: this community-owned pub was originally built as a farmhouse in the 16th century and has 18th and 19th century additions and alterations. Now Grade II listed, it has an enhanced list description thanks to CAMRA.