Stockport based family brewer and pub company Robinsons in-house design team have been awarded ‘best bar’ in the prestigious Northern Design Awards. The refurbishment of the Swan & Chequers in Sandbach, Cheshire which forms part of the business’s business partnership estate was recognised as the best in the industry, noting all the consideration to detail that the design team had achieved. The town-centre pub was up against alongside another northern family brewer JW Lees with their recent refurbishment of Rain Bar.

The project’s in-house senior designer Duncan Thorpe and project manager Tom Wellock spent weeks transforming the previously tired high-street pub into a timeless mid-century town bar influenced by a Churchhill speech which was made from the pubs balcony in 1954.

The Swan & Chequers is one of 23 pub investment projects that have been made by Robinsons in 2023,17 of which have been within their business partnership estate.

Winning the ‘best bar’ award wasn’t the only success for Robinsons at this year’s awards. Two of their managed, Individual Inns sites the Crown Inn, in Coniston and the Tempest Arms near Skipton were nominated as finalists in the ‘hotel/lodging’ category.