Published22 July 2026Updated5 October 2026
We're Revisiting Our Leisure Portfolio
Run a pub, bar or restaurant? A busy summer shows you exactly what your building gets right and what it doesn't. Here's what twenty years of Midlands leisure projects has taught us about fixing it.
The World Cup's over. The bunting's down, the temporary staff have drifted off, and every venue we've worked with is looking at the same question through slightly bloodshot eyes: what now? We've spent more than twenty years designing pubs, bars and restaurants across the Midlands. This is the summer we go back to them.
A Packed Room Tells You Everything
A pub in full swing is the most honest survey you'll ever get. You can see exactly where it works and exactly where it doesn't. The queue three deep at one end of the bar while the other end gathers glasses. The kitchen door that turns into a bottleneck every service. The corner nobody sits in, and the one everyone fights over.
I know what that looks like from the wrong side of the bar. I spent more than ten years working and running pubs and bars to pay my way through college and university, a decade I've since chosen to file under research.
Peak season writes all of this down for you. The World Cup filled rooms that don't usually fill, and pushed kitchens and bars to the point where the cracks show. That's not a bad thing. That's information you can't buy.
The venues we've worked with know the numbers held up. The interesting question is what the building did under the pressure, and whether it can do it again next time without the staff aging a decade.
Twenty Years of Pubs, Bars and Last Orders
We've designed across the leisure world for a long time, and it teaches you things a housing scheme never will. Licensing, cellar access, commercial kitchens, the flow of two hundred people who've all decided they need the bar at once. Every venue is a different puzzle.
Some sit in buildings that come with their own opinions. At the Canal Inn in Bullbridge, we extended a listed building with a modernist addition, laid out a garden, and reworked the interior into a microbrewery. The listed fabric didn't hold the project back. It set the terms, and the new work had to be good enough to sit next to it. That's a healthy pressure to design under.
The Canal Inn is one of four venues we've worked on for the same client, which is a story worth telling on its own.
Operators Who Kept Coming Back
When a client hands you their second pub, you've probably done the first one right. When they hand you their fourth, you can stop calling it luck. The Moorwood Hotel Collection has had us work across four of its venues: the Canal Inn, the White Hart in South Wingfield, the Horse and Jockey in Wessington, and the Hurt Arms in Ambergate.
These aren't only pubs. Several come with rooms upstairs and a wedding to host at the weekend, so the brief runs from the cellar to the bridal suite. Designing a place that pours pints on a Friday and marries people on a Saturday is a different job from either one on its own.
It's the same story with Berkeley Inns, who we worked with on the Meynell Ingram Arms. When a client runs venues for a living, you spend less time explaining and more time getting it right.
The Independents and the One-Offs
Not every project comes with a collection behind it. The Blue Bell Inn in Ashbourne stands on its own. The Range near Stretton works as a dedicated wedding venue, where the whole day has to move through the building without a single awkward pause, and the photographs have to look right in every corner.
Food changes what a room has to do. The lighting, the acoustics, the distance between the pass and the furthest table: all of it shapes whether people settle in and stay, or eat and leave. Lorentes in Derby city centre and the Book Cafe sit at that food-led end of the spectrum. A space that reads well at the door and flows well once you're inside is doing a job long before anyone looks at a menu.
That's the part people forget about hospitality design. The building is the first thing a customer experiences and the last thing they consciously notice.
The Window's Open Now
Post-event momentum is real, and it doesn't hang around. A venue that was rammed in July looks very different on a wet Wednesday in November, and the appetite to change things fades at roughly the same rate as the summer.
The operators we're talking to this summer are asking sharp questions. How do we lay out the kitchen so it doesn't fall over on the next big night? Is the bar the bottleneck, or is it the path to the bar? Can we add covers without adding square footage, because that's the real brief nine times out of ten. The old layout worked for 2004, and we're not in 2004.
None of that is trend-chasing. It's looking at what the busy weeks showed you and deciding to fix it while you still remember. If you run a venue and something's been nagging at you every service, that's not sentiment. That's the building telling you something. We're good listeners, and we've done this cycle enough times to know which questions to ask first.
Talk to us before the momentum's gone.
Areas We Cover
JSA Architects Across the Midlands
We work with venue operators, developers and homeowners across the Midlands. Fees, planning authorities, and project types vary by location: find local insight and project examples for your area:
Architects in Derby →: Quarndon, Kirk Langley, Duffield, Allestree, Darley Abbey, Mickleover, Littleover
Architects in Nottingham →: The Park Estate, West Bridgford, Edwalton, Mapperley Park, Wollaton, Bramcote
Architects in Lichfield →: Shenstone, Little Aston, Four Oaks, Streetly, Aldridge, Walsall, Tamworth, Whittington
Architects in Solihull →: Knowle, Dorridge, Hampton in Arden, Shirley, Dickens Heath, Olton
Architects in Sutton Coldfield →: Four Oaks, Wylde Green, Boldmere, Mere Green, Streetly, Little Aston
faq's
Common Questions
Both, and the refurbishments are often the more interesting job. Working out how to make an existing building do more, without losing what people already love about it, is where a lot of the craft lives.
Yes. The Canal Inn in Bullbridge is a listed building we extended with a modern addition and reworked inside. Listed status sets the terms rather than closing the door. It takes the right approach and a good relationship with the conservation officer, and we've had plenty of practice at both.
It depends on the project, and it's one of the first things worth planning around. Where the work can be phased so you keep trading, we'll design it that way. Lost revenue is part of the real cost of a refurbishment, and it belongs in the conversation from the start.
Earlier than most people think. The cheapest time to change something is on a drawing, not on site. A conversation before you've committed to anything usually saves money and awkwardness later.
We work across the Midlands from studios in Derby, Nottingham, Lichfield and Solihull, and our leisure projects run right across the region and beyond.
Articles
News & Insights
Project updates, practice news, and useful guidance from JSA Architects.
Planning submitted for a 25-room co-living scheme in Derby: deep, dark and full of rules
Deep footprints, dark middles and three sets of rules that don't always agree. What it takes to design co-living studios, and our 25-room scheme in Derby.
Bat Surveys and Building Projects: Seasons, Licences and Costs
Bats can hold up homes, commercial sites and listed buildings for most of a year. Survey triggers, council rules, permitted development, licences and costs.
A new appointment in Allestree: refurbish or replace?
A new Allestree appointment prompts a practical guide to refurbishing or replacing a house, with a worked cost example, surveys, fees and planning questions.
JSA Appointed for Listed Building Extension in Amber Valley
JSA is appointed to design a sensitive extension to a Grade II listed stone building in Amber Valley, Derbyshire, going to pre-application with CGI support.
Good Architectural Drawings Matter More Than You Think
Poor architectural drawings create assumptions, delays and cost. See why clear, accurate information matters to homeowners and commercial clients.
HMO or Flats? Why Modern Co-Living Falls Between the Rules
When does an HMO become flats? See how planning, licensing, building regulations and fire safety diverge, and how co-living developers can reduce risk early.
The New NPPF Is Here: What the 2026 Rewrite Means for Your Project
The new NPPF landed on 17 August 2026 and applies to decisions now. What changed for extensions, garden plots, small sites and Midlands projects.
We're Revisiting Our Leisure Portfolio
Twenty years of Midlands pub, bar and restaurant projects, plus a decade behind the bar. What a busy summer tells you about the building you trade from.
We Built an App That Keeps You in the Room
Datum is JSA's own project app. Every client gets a login: latest drawings, the brief, where planning's got to and what we did this week. Free on every project.
Biodiversity Net Gain: A Quick Guide for Anyone Who Isn't an Ecologist
What Biodiversity Net Gain requires for new developments in England: the 10% target, who's exempt, and how to plan for it from day one.
A 1960s Bungalow Gets a Contemporary Rethink in Lichfield
A modest 1960s bungalow in Lichfield is being extended and reconfigured for downsizing clients. Planning is submitted to Lichfield District Council.
Little Eaton Dormer Bungalows Approved, No Amendments Needed
Two backland dormer bungalows in Little Eaton have been approved by Erewash Borough Council with no amendments needed. Here's why that's rarer than it sounds.
JSA Appointed to Design 'The Forest': 73 Apartments for T&T Asset Group in Derby City Centre
T&T Asset Group has appointed JSA to design The Forest, a 73-apartment conversion in Derby city centre, covering architecture, interior design and planning.
The Grange, Finished: A Georgian Villa Restored, Warmed and Handed Back
See the finished restoration of The Grange, a Georgian villa in South Derbyshire. JSA acted as both architect and project manager throughout.
Burley Lane Site Progress Update: Quarndon Home Now Taking Shape
Site progress at Burley Lane in Quarndon: stair structure, basement golf simulator, MVHR routes, full-height glazing and November 2026 completion.
Planning Approved for Bramble Street Office-to-Flats Conversion in Derby
A vacant period office on Bramble Street, Derby, has approval for three flats. Now the unglamorous part: stairs, acoustics, flood notes and drawings.
Justin Smith Architects Is Now JSA Architects
Justin Smith Architects is now JSA Architects. Here’s the story, in Justin’s own words, and what the rebrand means for our clients and the practice.
Welcome to JSA, Joao Bravo
Joao Bravo joins JSA as our 3D artist and visualiser. A University of Derby graduate and qualified architectural technologist, originally from Lisbon.
Light at the End of the Terrace: Contemporary Rear Extension to a Victorian Townhouse in Sutton Coldfield
A contemporary rear extension brings light and space to a Victorian townhouse in Sutton Coldfield, and leaves the period terrace out front exactly as it was.
JSA Architects and British Living Group: Working Together on Derby Co-Living Development
JSA is working with British Living Group, one of the Midlands' most commercially minded developers, on a 27-room co-living conversion in Derby.
Lichfield’s Local Plan Might Be Delayed to 2029. If You’re Thinking About a Project, Here’s What That Means for You
Lichfield District Council may delay its 2043 Local Plan. If that sounds like a reason to pause your project, read this first. It probably isn't.
5,500 Homes Are Coming to Walmley. If You’re Already Living There, This Is Your Cue to Stop Putting Off Your Own Project
Birmingham City Council has approved the groundwork for 5,500 new homes near Walmley. If your own project's been on the back burner, this is your sign.
Planning Approved for Brooklands Luxury Dwelling
Golden Brook Developments had a permission for Brooklands and didn't rate the design. We redesigned it, and South Derbyshire has now approved the new scheme.
Planning Submitted: Brooklands' Redesign Heads to South Derbyshire District Council
The design's done and the application's in. Here's what JSA has proposed for Brooklands, a new home in Weston-on-Trent, South Derbyshire.
JSA Architects Appointed to Redesign Brooklands, a Luxury New Build in Weston-on-Trent
A permission existed and a design was on the table. Golden Brook Developments decided it wasn't good enough. They were right, and they called us.
Two Stand-Out Self-Builds Submitted for Full Planning in Little Eaton
Two bespoke self-build homes in Little Eaton designed for standout architecture and smart investment returns.
Major Family Home Remodel Proposed in Repton, South Derbyshire
Modern extension and full internal remodel proposed for character home in sought-after Repton, South Derbyshire.
Planning Appeal Secured for Bold New Home in Quarndon’s Green Belt
A new home in the Quarndon Green Belt, won at appeal. How strategic planning and a strong design got a Green Belt house over the line in Derbyshire.
Windy Rise, Little Eaton: JSA Architects Appointed and Planning Application Submitted
The Windy Rise plot in Little Eaton lost its bungalow to arsonists in 2017, then spent a decade rewilding. Our design for the hillside is now with the council.
Windy Rise Gets the Green Light: Erewash Borough Council Approves the Hillside Home That Made Councillors Say 'Thunderbirds Are Go'
Planning approved at Windy Rise, Little Eaton. Erewash Borough Council approved this Green Belt replacement dwelling 11-1. See how JSA Architects made the case.
Planning submitted for a 25-room co-living scheme in Derby: deep, dark and full of rules
Deep footprints, dark middles and three sets of rules that don't always agree. What it takes to design co-living studios, and our 25-room scheme in Derby.
Bat Surveys and Building Projects: Seasons, Licences and Costs
Bats can hold up homes, commercial sites and listed buildings for most of a year. Survey triggers, council rules, permitted development, licences and costs.
A new appointment in Allestree: refurbish or replace?
A new Allestree appointment prompts a practical guide to refurbishing or replacing a house, with a worked cost example, surveys, fees and planning questions.
JSA Appointed for Listed Building Extension in Amber Valley
JSA is appointed to design a sensitive extension to a Grade II listed stone building in Amber Valley, Derbyshire, going to pre-application with CGI support.
Good Architectural Drawings Matter More Than You Think
Poor architectural drawings create assumptions, delays and cost. See why clear, accurate information matters to homeowners and commercial clients.
HMO or Flats? Why Modern Co-Living Falls Between the Rules
When does an HMO become flats? See how planning, licensing, building regulations and fire safety diverge, and how co-living developers can reduce risk early.
The New NPPF Is Here: What the 2026 Rewrite Means for Your Project
The new NPPF landed on 17 August 2026 and applies to decisions now. What changed for extensions, garden plots, small sites and Midlands projects.
We're Revisiting Our Leisure Portfolio
Twenty years of Midlands pub, bar and restaurant projects, plus a decade behind the bar. What a busy summer tells you about the building you trade from.
We Built an App That Keeps You in the Room
Datum is JSA's own project app. Every client gets a login: latest drawings, the brief, where planning's got to and what we did this week. Free on every project.
Biodiversity Net Gain: A Quick Guide for Anyone Who Isn't an Ecologist
What Biodiversity Net Gain requires for new developments in England: the 10% target, who's exempt, and how to plan for it from day one.
A 1960s Bungalow Gets a Contemporary Rethink in Lichfield
A modest 1960s bungalow in Lichfield is being extended and reconfigured for downsizing clients. Planning is submitted to Lichfield District Council.
Little Eaton Dormer Bungalows Approved, No Amendments Needed
Two backland dormer bungalows in Little Eaton have been approved by Erewash Borough Council with no amendments needed. Here's why that's rarer than it sounds.
JSA Appointed to Design 'The Forest': 73 Apartments for T&T Asset Group in Derby City Centre
T&T Asset Group has appointed JSA to design The Forest, a 73-apartment conversion in Derby city centre, covering architecture, interior design and planning.
The Grange, Finished: A Georgian Villa Restored, Warmed and Handed Back
See the finished restoration of The Grange, a Georgian villa in South Derbyshire. JSA acted as both architect and project manager throughout.
Burley Lane Site Progress Update: Quarndon Home Now Taking Shape
Site progress at Burley Lane in Quarndon: stair structure, basement golf simulator, MVHR routes, full-height glazing and November 2026 completion.
Planning Approved for Bramble Street Office-to-Flats Conversion in Derby
A vacant period office on Bramble Street, Derby, has approval for three flats. Now the unglamorous part: stairs, acoustics, flood notes and drawings.
Justin Smith Architects Is Now JSA Architects
Justin Smith Architects is now JSA Architects. Here’s the story, in Justin’s own words, and what the rebrand means for our clients and the practice.
Welcome to JSA, Joao Bravo
Joao Bravo joins JSA as our 3D artist and visualiser. A University of Derby graduate and qualified architectural technologist, originally from Lisbon.
Light at the End of the Terrace: Contemporary Rear Extension to a Victorian Townhouse in Sutton Coldfield
A contemporary rear extension brings light and space to a Victorian townhouse in Sutton Coldfield, and leaves the period terrace out front exactly as it was.
JSA Architects and British Living Group: Working Together on Derby Co-Living Development
JSA is working with British Living Group, one of the Midlands' most commercially minded developers, on a 27-room co-living conversion in Derby.
Lichfield’s Local Plan Might Be Delayed to 2029. If You’re Thinking About a Project, Here’s What That Means for You
Lichfield District Council may delay its 2043 Local Plan. If that sounds like a reason to pause your project, read this first. It probably isn't.
5,500 Homes Are Coming to Walmley. If You’re Already Living There, This Is Your Cue to Stop Putting Off Your Own Project
Birmingham City Council has approved the groundwork for 5,500 new homes near Walmley. If your own project's been on the back burner, this is your sign.
Planning Approved for Brooklands Luxury Dwelling
Golden Brook Developments had a permission for Brooklands and didn't rate the design. We redesigned it, and South Derbyshire has now approved the new scheme.
Planning Submitted: Brooklands' Redesign Heads to South Derbyshire District Council
The design's done and the application's in. Here's what JSA has proposed for Brooklands, a new home in Weston-on-Trent, South Derbyshire.
JSA Architects Appointed to Redesign Brooklands, a Luxury New Build in Weston-on-Trent
A permission existed and a design was on the table. Golden Brook Developments decided it wasn't good enough. They were right, and they called us.
Two Stand-Out Self-Builds Submitted for Full Planning in Little Eaton
Two bespoke self-build homes in Little Eaton designed for standout architecture and smart investment returns.
Major Family Home Remodel Proposed in Repton, South Derbyshire
Modern extension and full internal remodel proposed for character home in sought-after Repton, South Derbyshire.
Planning Appeal Secured for Bold New Home in Quarndon’s Green Belt
A new home in the Quarndon Green Belt, won at appeal. How strategic planning and a strong design got a Green Belt house over the line in Derbyshire.
Windy Rise, Little Eaton: JSA Architects Appointed and Planning Application Submitted
The Windy Rise plot in Little Eaton lost its bungalow to arsonists in 2017, then spent a decade rewilding. Our design for the hillside is now with the council.
Windy Rise Gets the Green Light: Erewash Borough Council Approves the Hillside Home That Made Councillors Say 'Thunderbirds Are Go'
Planning approved at Windy Rise, Little Eaton. Erewash Borough Council approved this Green Belt replacement dwelling 11-1. See how JSA Architects made the case.
