A 1960s Roman-themed pub with a statue of Julius Caesar and its original patterned Formica intact is among a batch of new heritage listings that celebrate the quirkiness of Britain’s postwar pubs.

Historic England announced on Friday that it had recommended listing five unusual pubs, including one designed around a nursery rhyme in Swindon, and another on a 1970s Bovis housing estate in Surrey that aimed to provide as many private drinking corners as possible.

The listings have emerged from research carried out into postwar pub design by the heritage organisation. Deborah Mays, its head of listing advice, said post-war pubs had evolved dramatically from those of the 19th century, which had ornate interiors, match strikers, off-sales space and frosted glass for privacy.

Many postwar pubs were intended to be an integral part of the new housing estates being built, and had family rooms, and large car parks. As competition from clubs and discos rose in the 1960s, many pubs also began to adopt themes.

“It provided escapism,” said Mays. “It is what we like about our social lives, going somewhere that’s different, that has character.”

One such place is the Centurion on an estate in Twerton, a suburb of Bath. Built in 1965 it has a large bronze sculpture of a Roman centurion, a statue of Julius Caesar and a framed section of a Roman mosaic floor. The listing report praises the retention of the original Formica veneer in the lounge bar and the slate bar front in its other bar.

The Centurion pub has a Roman Britain theme. Photograph: James O Davies/Historic England/PA

The Crumpled Horn in Swindon opened in 1975, one of a group of Watney Mann pubs designed around the theme of the nursery rhyme This Is the House that Jack Built. Almost unaltered, it is the only survivor of the group.

“It is quite wild,” said Mays. “You would question structurally whether it could stand and that’s the point – the twisted roof looks like it has been thrown up by an unqualified builder but it is incredibly stable and it has been there for many years. It is lovely inside. It is a challenge and a pleasure.”



The Wheatsheaf in Camberley, Surrey, is not themed but it is slightly odd. Built in 1970 for a new Bovis housing estate, the architects John and Sylvia Reid – who also designed mass-market furniture – were given a free hand when it came to design, in contrast with other pubs that had to blend in with the housing.

Their design features a decagonal ratchet-wheel layout intended to create as many alcoves in the single open bar space as possible. It is based on the theory that pub-goers want to be both among a crowd, and to themselves.



The Wheatsheaf in Camberley. Photograph: Historic England/PA

The other quirky pubs listed are the flint and cobble-decorated Never Turn Back in Caister, Norfolk, which opened in 1957 as a memorial to the Caister lifeboat disaster of 1901, in which nine crew members died; and the Queen Bess in Scunthorpe, a Samuel Smith pub that opened in 1959 and was named after a blast furnace at the nearby steelworks.



Duncan Wilson, the chief executive of Historic England, said all five postwar pubs were fascinating and “among the best surviving examples of a building type which is embedded in English culture”.