{"id":1054479,"date":"2026-06-28T00:13:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T00:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1054479\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T00:13:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T00:13:23","slug":"the-most-beautiful-pub-in-britain-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1054479\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Beautiful Pub in Britain 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) loves everything about British pub culture. And every year, it hands out a bunch of\u00a0prizes to prove it. It has awards dedicated to\u00a0good beer<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0cider, to people who come together to save at risk pubs and, of course, to really great boozers<\/a>. Now, the organisation has revealed\u00a0which pubs across the country are the fairest of them all in its Pub Design Awards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Across four categories, CAMRA\u2019s design awards recognise pubs the \u2018the UK\u2019s most visually stunning, lovingly restored and historically significant pubs\u2019.<\/p>\n

The headline\u00a0prize\u00a0is the\u00a0Historic England Conservation Award, which recognises a pub conservation that has preserved historical features and also updated certain facilities that will help it better survive in the long-term.\u00a0For 2026, that\u00a0top\u00a0gong went\u00a0to the Woodman<\/strong> in Birmingham<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The
\nPhotograph: CAMRAThe interior of the Woodman, Birmingham <\/p>\n

Standing proud on a corner in Digbeth<\/a>, the Woodman was built in 1897 to be used as a pub for the local Ansells brewery. But it moved through different owners and has fallen into disrepair several times over the last 130 years. Most recently, it shuttered in 2022\u00a0but reopened in 2024 under the ownership of Union Inns after a careful \u00a3300,000\u00a0refurbishment.\u00a0That refurbishment is what earned it CAMRA\u2019s grand prize.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The extensive work on the multi-room pub involved laying out a new wooden floor, cleaning and conserving the historic Minton\u00a0tiling walls and restoring the ornate woodwork throughout the interior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Tiled
\nPhotograph: CAMRATiled walls at the Woodman, Birmingham <\/p>\n

CAMRA points out that the Woodman sits next to Old Curzon Street Station, which is set to be reopened as part of HS2. That\u2019ll make it an \u2018an impressive first port of call for passengers\u2019 and will hopefully ensure that it\u2019ll stay open for many decades to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for the other three categories\u00a0 at the Design Awards (conversion to pub use, refurbishment and community), the gold medals all went to pubs in London<\/a>, though St Peter\u2019s Tavern<\/strong> in Liverpool, a former Roman Catholic Church built in 1788, came joint first in the conversion category.\u00a0The Green Man<\/strong> in Huntington picked up \u2018highly commended\u2019 in the refurbishment category after being turned from a mouldy run-down building into a \u2018focal point for the village\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ICYMI: The UK\u2019s best gastropub in 2026, according to Time Out<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Plus:\u00a0The bright pink Edinburgh shop named the UK\u2019s best independent bookshop for 2026<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay in the loop:\u00a0sign up to our free Time Out UK newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for the latest UK news and the best stuff happening across the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) loves everything about British pub culture. And every year, it hands out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1054480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7820],"tags":[6421,855,748,13285,393,102075,4884,15144,280,16,15],"class_list":["post-1054479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-birmingham","tag-audience-location-audience-united-kingdom","tag-birmingham","tag-britain","tag-categories-restaurants","tag-england","tag-europe-united-kingdom","tag-great-britain","tag-news-drinking","tag-restaurants","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116824847835861307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1054479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1054480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1054479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1054479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1054479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}