Context 165 - August 2020

C O N T E X T 1 6 5 : A U G U S T 2 0 2 0 33 Food and drink The later inter-war years saw the development of a modern style quite specific to public houses, often with horizontal steel windows and curved forms inside and out, from the building itself to the bar inside. But the truly modern public house remained a much publicised and highly acclaimed novelty. Brewers, who were reticent to spend money on any style but Tudor, found it unsuitable, ‘too arid to be either comfortable or homely,’ said EB Musman, an architect who had already been successful in persuading the use of a more radical design. Musman, one of the most famous exponents of modern design in public houses, was responsible for the Comet, Hatfield (1934, Grade II) and the Nag’s Head, Bishop Stortford (1935, Grade II). Few architects were able, like Musman, to grasp enough elements of modernism to produce buildings which were restrained enough to win the approval of magistrates and homely enough to win customer support, while having sufficient design flair to create a new style that did not rely on pastiche. The Ship Hotel, Skegness (1934, Grade II), a seaside pub by Nottingham architects BE Bailey and E Eberlin for the Home Brewery, has an appropriately nautical style in ocean-liner art deco. Steel framed with horizontal emphasis and metal casements and a flat roof with cantilevered eaves, it is topped, in the style of a ship’s deck, by a steel balustrade. As a new approach to the plan and facilities of pubs developed, this Improved Public House, with its enlarged interior spaces, outdoor ameni- ties and provision of food and light refreshments in dining or tea rooms, began to be seen as a solution to the immorality of drink. The renaissance of the public house as a place, no longer just for drinking, but for social and leisure activity, removed some of the stigma and attracted new customers in the middle classes and aspirational working classes. Women were encouraged and children’s rooms provided. These new customers were seen in turn by the magistrates as a potentially sobering influence on the drunken rabble. Brewers became aware that although altera- tions to existing pubs with larger rooms, mini- mum counter lengths, adequate toilets and areas for food consumption would meet the requirements of the magistrates, demolition and elaborate rebuilding on the site would make an impression on the new customers they wanted to attract. In 1936 the Home Brewery in Nottingham proposed conversion of a late Victorian house, the Corner House, into a pub. By 1937 they had abandoned this plan and com- missioned local architect Cecil Howitt to design on the same site the Vale Hotel, Daybrook, Nottingham (Grade II) a modern prestigious property that explored the full potential of a crossroads location on a main arterial route. The breweries began to invest large sums in improving or rebuilding their properties and saw the commercial potential in courting the moral mood of the age. The Home Brewery in Nottingham spent £500,000 between 1918 and 1936 on redevelopment of its stock.Conservation and historic significance were not major consid- erations with the development of the Improved Public House. Many old and historic premises, especially villages pubs, were demolished. Larger rooms were visible from a central bar to prevent the immorality and lascivious behaviour associated with the private bars and small snugs of Victorian premises. In 1938 EB Musman advocated there should be ‘no alcoves or por- tions screened off in which customers can carry on betting or other practices prohibited on the premises’. A large room was also considered to prevent ‘perpendicular drinking’ around the bar and to slow down the consumption of drink.The ideal interior was one accessed through a wide entrance door leading towards a large feature fireplace.Wall panelling was used in wood, cork, The Nag’s Head, Bishop Stortford (1935, Grade II), designed by EB Musman (also pictured on page 10)