Dacorum’s Green Dragon pub wins prestigious Pub Design award

A pub in a Dacorum village has been awarded an award in CAMRA’s prestigious Pub Design Awards.

The Green Dragon, a 17th century public house in Flaunden, has been awarded the Refurbishment Award - the pub shares the top spot in the Refurbishment Award category with Blind Bull, Little Hucklow, Derbyshire.

The awards, held in conjunction with Historic England, celebrate exceptional pubs across the country that have undergone conversion or conservation work, or are newly built.

With low beams, exposed brickwork and open fires, the recently refurbished pub serves an extensive range of drinks including guest ales from the bar and authentic Italian cuisine and wood-oven fired pizzas from its trattoria and pizzeria.

The pub was in poor condition when the new owner, Mike Ghazarian, set about refurbishing the building in 2019 to the designs of architect Martin Kearney of Newline Architects.

A historic building with a timber-framed core, it featured in CAMRA’s Britain’s Best Real Heritage Pubs for its Tap Room, a simple rustic room retaining its quarry-tiled floor and fixed bench seating.

Andrew Davison, chair of CAMRA’s Pub Design Award judging panel, said: “The Green Dragon pub had unfortunately suffered from unsympathetic alterations in recent years, before the attentions of its new owner Mike.

"The work that has been carried out here is well-designed without being showy, and is raised above the ordinary by the unusually high quality of the workmanship and finishes.

"The historic parts of the pub have been carefully restored, whilst more modern parts have been thoroughly refitted in a contemporary manner.

"This is a worthy joint winner of our Refurbishment Award.”

This year’s Pub Design Awards come after over a year of restrictions and uncertainty for the pub industry, and mere weeks after the full lifting of restrictions on 19 July.

The awards had been delayed from their usual announcement earlier in the year, in order to factor in coronavirus restrictions on pubs and allowing the judging panel to visit the nominated establishments.

Winners will be recognised at a virtual event hosted by the awards’ judges at 7pm on Thursday, August 26. To join the event and congratulate the pub owners and designers, click this link to book a place on Zoom.

There were seven winners across the different categories, ranging from best refurbishment to the prestigious Historic England Conservation award, and one additional pub highly commended in this year’s competition.