The curse of Farrow & Ball

Why you should never modernise pubs or wine labels.

It’s always a frightening moment when a pub closes for renovation. What aesthetic horrors will be perpetrated on a once comfortable boozer? One local, The Market Inn in Faversham, has just been given the full Farrow & Ball¹ paint treatment with white tiles behind the bar where it was previously all wood and mirrors.

In truth, it wasn’t a particularly memorable interior before, no Princess Louise in Holborn or Whitelocks in Leeds, but it preserved the sort of wipe-clean ‘70s take on Victoriana which was a typical pub look when I was growing up. In short, it felt right.

I suppose it could be worse. A pub near where I was brought up now looks like the twee gift section in a garden centre. The entire pub extension is covered in signs saying things like “Gin O’Clock” or “caution ladies drinking Prosecco!” Or most baffling of all: “A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.”² But what if your comfort zone is an allotment?