CAMRA is dedicated to supporting pubs as well as promoting best-quality beers and ciders. In particular, we are widely regarded for our work in identifying and helping to protect the UK’s most important heritage pubs through the compilation of our inventories of pubs with historic interiors – the most precious survivors.
CAMRA defines heritage pubs as those that are wholly or mostly unchanged or retain important historic rooms or features from before 1970. Since then however, many pubs have been expertly refurbished or have been created in buildings previously used for other purposes. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, a lot of new pubs in both urban and rural locations are really good. They deserve to be recognised and applauded. CAMRA has therefore begun a project to identify, preserve and protect pubs that we consider to be outstanding conversions and restorations (OCR). These are the best examples of pub owners taking care to present a pub for modern times while respecting the origins of the building in which it is housed. Or, they have taken care to refashion a pub so that it has a genuinely historical feel and/or has design to admire. All pubs included have that essential quality of, for want of a better description, ‘pubbiness’.
Why is CAMRA doing this?
1.To raise awareness of examples of outstanding pub conversions and restorations, thus stimulating interest in visiting and enjoying them.
2.To inspire pub owners and others to pursue excellence when converting or restoring buildings for pub use.
3.To thereby establish yardsticks against which future pub conversions and restorations can be judged.
4.To help protect identified pubs from unsympathetic changes.
5.To contribute to CAMRA’s wider objective of generating enthusiasm for pub-going.
There are around thirty pubs in Greater London which come into this category. They range from ‘new builds’ such as the Sail Loft (Fuller’s) in Greenwich to the Royal Oak at the Borough, which Harvey’s restored to how it would have looked in the 1850s. There are too many to list here but details can be found at https://ocrpubs.camra.org.uk/. This is the full national list but it can be filtered to whatever area you are looking for.
You can also find out more about the project on the following website. This is a live project so if you know of any other pubs that you think should be included as outstanding conversions or restorations, please let us know at info@ocrpubs.camra.org.uk. Enjoy!