Well ahead

Natalie Satchell of the Flask, in London's Hampstead village, and Young's Phil Dukelow tell Nigel Huddleston about the art of retaining Victorian charm in a contemporary setting

Tucked away down a charming, paved Victorian walkway in Hampstead, north London, lies one of the jewels in the Young's pub-estate crown. The Flask is just two minutes' walk from the tube station, but seemingly a whole world away from the West End's hustle and bustle.

The managed house takes its name from when it used to be a point for visitors to the area to collect containers to carry spring waters from local wells. A grade-II listed building dating from 1874, it retains its original dividing screens between public bar and lounge areas, and features paintings by a Belgian artist, the aptly-named Jan Van Beers. The public bar was a hangout of comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in their 1960s heyday.

Natalie Satchell, the pub's 25-year-old manager, joined Young's through its training academy. This is the first pub she has run in her own right, having previously shadowed other managers and provided cover.

"The thing that attracted me most was that it is a real pub," she says. "There are so many places in

Hampstead that don't feel like pubs

any more, because they're being

turned into bars. In an area where

people like to think they're in a

community-based village, it's important to have a traditional pub."

With five years' experience as a Young's area manager, Phil Dukelow was able to bring a feel for the overall business and the individual location to a project in which he played a key role. "We hadn't spent any money on it in those five years, or for some time before that," says Dukelow. "Anything that comes across as branded in Hampstead doesn't work. You have to accept that it's not really in London, but operates as a separate village. Young's do 'branded', but we had to be very careful that it came across as a traditional public house."

Dukelow worked with Bristol-based Otto Martin's design house, which specialises in Victorian buildings. "He's worked with Young's for more than 20 years, and was asked to come up with the original design because he understands Young's history and we didn't want to lose the traditional feel," Dukelow says.

Young's in-house designers Jane Holme and Ed Hazard were used to put a more contemporary stamp on Otto's original plans. Dukelow says: "They put a twist on what he had done — it was decorated in very dark greens and reds, so they lightened it up and made it a bit softer. It's Otto's template, but internally we turned into a more contemporary version of a Victorian pub."

The pub has its own website, but Satchell set up a page on internet networking site Facebook to keep regulars informed about how work was progressing while the pub was closed. "Because there was so much interest in the refurbishment, we had pages with a countdown and pictures so that people could keep an eye on what was going on," she says. "People could follow it themselves instead of having to stand outside the door every morning to ask me what was going on."

Design

The aim of the brief was to retain as many Victorian features and as much of the original character as possible, but to make it more appealing to a young, professional audience, particularly increasing its attraction to women. Dukelow says: "We wanted it to be more modern and spent a lot of time talking about how you get a place like this to feel traditional and Victorian, yet contemporary.

"As soon as everything's shiny and clean it can lose its charm, so the designers were briefed to keep that charm, but offer newer customers a feeling that it had changed.

"We wanted to use traditional colours, features and fabrics as much as possible."

In addition to existing features such as fireplaces, items such as pictures of the local area and old Underground posters were introduced to help reflect the character of the location. According to Satchell, it had a reputation as a "dingy sort of drinkers' place", stuck in a bit of a rut.

"I probably used to see about four women a week before the refurbishment," she adds. "In fact, they nearly died with shock when I walked in and they had a woman manager. Regulars were scared about the refurbishment, so I made a conscious decision to be very open with them about the plans and showed them the sketches, because I wanted them to be comfortable with what was happening. But it was a case of opening it up to new people as well."

Furniture and decoration

Wherever possible, original features were clung on to for authenticity, including the listed screen and beautifully tiled fireplaces. These features of the lounge were augmented by four giant mirrors bought from reclamation sources to give more light to a space that, like so many Victorian pubs, was originally intended to be out of sight of passers-by.

Raised tables were introduced close to the windows. Dukelow says: "We wanted people to walk past and see others enjoying themselves, rather than being hidden away."

A portioned section containing an enormous boardroom table and banquette seating was also created in the lounge. "We have parties all the time at this table," says Satchell. "At first I thought that if we didn't have one big group it might be wasted space, but it's become more of a community thing. On a Saturday night you can have three or four groups round it and by the end of the night they're all talking to each other."

One wall has contemporary wallpaper as a feature. Satchell says: "At first it was painted the same shade of green as the rest of the lounge, but that wall lacked something. An original Victorian pub wouldn't have had contemporary wallpaper, but the room definitely needed a lift."

A conservatory off the lounge has been brightened up with reconditioned furniture and the removal of a set of fake vines. The space is used for dining and now has a hatch going straight through to the kitchen.

The public bar has kept its original character — vinyl floor, card table, dartboard, no music — but is decorated with fresh paint and artwork.

Furniture and decoration: £60,000

Building works

The major work was to re-site the toilets, create the hatch in the conservatory and deal with issues such as damp on some of the external walls upstairs. Satchell says: "When I came here, the wallpaper was peeling off the walls, and a lot of the money was needed to get the building back together again. It had been a bit unloved really."

Dukelow says the small changes to the lounge layout have improved the character of the pub. "We actually created 10 or 11 covers just through opening up the room by blocking off the door to the gents' toilets and adding better seating."

Building works: £60,000

Externals

The major task was to return the main swing-sign to its original look. The previous sign, depicting the flask featured in the pub's name as a vessel for a rifleman's shot, has been kept, and is displayed in the small beer garden off the conservatory.

"It looks quite modern, but is actually a reproduction of the original sign," says Dukelow. "It took a lot of research and we only had one photo from the 1880s, so we had to use specialists to enhance it to see what it really looked like."

The original tiling on the outside columns was restored and the exterior painted in authentic colours, with lettering picked out in gold. Pressure of space means smoking provision is restricted to a small side awning and stand-up table. "It's so residential that we don't want to make it too comfortable for people to sit outside because of the potential for noise," says Satchell.

Money was also spent on upgrading a small, secluded patio outside the pub's conservatory area. Unusually in these times, this space has remained non-smoking. Satchell says: "It's partly because its access is off a dining area, but it's also very enclosed. I like the idea of having a smoke-free