THE BLACK HAT, ILKLEY
- Pub and restaurant | Design and Build
- Nov 30, 2015
- 2 min read
Previously trading as The Rose and Crown this tenanted pub had gained a reputation as a dreary late-night bar with little daytime trade. The brief was to turn this struggling venue around into a successful pub and thriving restaurant to service the local community and tourist trade. The area is relatively wealthy with a strong older demographic, young families and a large number of visitors for sightseeing and walking. Enterprise Inns required a venue that would stand out from the crowd with significant points of difference but also maintain the familiarity necessary for a local pub. The result is a contemporary country pub and restaurant containing warm traditional elements, a vintage industrial feel and a few tasteful, individual twists.
Concorde BGW worked closely with the Enterprise Inns team and tenant to produce an innovative, stylish and cost effective scheme that has proved extremely popular with a broad range of customers.
The classically styled monochrome exterior signals an interior that contains traditional elements including leather fixed seating, traditional 40’s style furniture, carpeted areas and rustic timber flooring with quarry tiles.
The new bar adds an industrial edge with filament lamps, glazed tiles, metalwork shelves and bold scaffold plank cladding. Throughout the main bar area the feature industrial light fittings, quirky bric-a-brac and stunning local photography radiate a feeling of warmth and quality.
Outside in the new garden the pub really shows off its character. Three fabulously retro pastel grey garden sheds act as comfortably upholstered seating booths, these are complemented by high furniture and industrial seating benches. Rustic timber planters frame the pops of colour from the brightly painted seats with the whole scene illuminated by festoon bulbs.
The success of not just halting decline but returning a venue to growth and profit means that the scheme will heavily influence other refurbishments of comparable struggling venues within the Enterprise Inns estate.
