A new build village pub embodies all the essential attributes of the British pub in contemporary form
Client
Hall & Woodhouse Ltd
Location
Deepcut, Surrey,
Date Completed
April 2022
Contract Sum
£3.2 Million
This new contemporary pub built by West Country brewers, Hall & Woodhouse, has created an enormously popular focus for the emerging community of Mindenhurst, a new “garden village” of 2,500 houses near Camberley, Surrey in the former military garrison of Deepcut.
The pub is sited on the edge of a new village green, adjacent to the old garrison church of St. Barnabas, and forms the core of what developers Skanska conceived as “a balanced sustainable village with a strong heart that is integrated into the existing community of Deepcut.” The pub, village green and the church provide that heart.
The brief from the developer called for a landmark building in a contemporary style with extensive glazed frontages onto the village green. The brewery’s brief called for a village pub for the “Grand Designs” generation. An aspirational community centred, all-day, multi-occasion venue that would act as the catalyst for the development of the new community and form the focus for the social and business life of the village and surrounding area.
The building is conceived as a farmhouse with a barn attached, being a common building type in rural England. However, in this case the barn structure references the splendid Grade 2 listed church of St. Barnabas, across the village green. This is one of the country’s finest “tin tabernacles,” temporary military churches dating from the 19th century and formed from corrugated iron, this one being originally built in India. The scissor truss structure and corrugated cladding of the barn replicate the structure and fabric of the church.
The building is generally framed in oak, and this continues externally to provide extensive verandas overlooking the green. Oak also frames an innovative sequence of recessed and projecting bay windows that provide the glazed frontage requested by the developer while also creating lots of nooks and crannies, sociable seating areas and a warm and cosy atmosphere that is the essential characteristic of the British pub, whether traditional or contemporary.
