Hednesford, Staffs:
Grand former house and hotel, and now a ‘spoons. It’s a big one too, and there’s lots of outside space (sadly full when we visited). The building’s very impressive, everything else is standard ‘spoons.
Hednesford, Staffs:
Grand former house and hotel, and now a ‘spoons. It’s a big one too, and there’s lots of outside space (sadly full when we visited). The building’s very impressive, everything else is standard ‘spoons.
Yes, Spoons have some magnificent buildings, but the actual pub fittings and general ambiance never live up to it. I’ve described it before as like installing a works canteen in a cathedral.
I think the ambience thing works better with spoons where the scale of the building overwhelms the inherent by-the-numbers fittings. Llandudno’s Palladium, for example, is sufficiently ornate and cavernous that the pretty ordinary fittings fade into background. Hedgeford Lodge is biggish, but it’s subdivided.
You may well be right. Oddly, the former cinema or theatre ones where some of the original layout is retained often seem to work best – see also the Picture House in Stafford and the one in Tunbridge Wells.