Lovely Pubs
I spent a few days travelling around the Midlands, visiting the Lovely Pubs collection and photographing the people and places that make each one what it is.
The pubs were all different. Some tucked into villages. Others beside the canal or surrounded by countryside. Old buildings, new spaces, roaring fires, busy kitchens and gardens coming to life.
But it was the people I remember most.
Here there was an openness, a friendliness that seemed to come naturally. People stopped to talk. They showed me around. They introduced me to the team, told me stories and, more than once, made me feel like I had been coming in for years.
That feeling was what I wanted to photograph.
Not just the polished interiors or the food and drink, but the life around them. The people behind the bar. The kitchen teams. The conversations. The regulars. The little moments that happen when people feel comfortable in a place.
Because a good pub is more than the building.
It is the welcome when you walk through the door. The people who remember your name. The feeling that you can sit down, stay awhile and belong.
That was the thread running through all the Lovely Pubs I visited.
My job was simply to be there long enough to see it.
