Let’s be honest, no one likes the council planning department. They seem to have a rule against everything, with the curious exception of erecting truly hideous houses everywhere you look, which is apparently smiled upon enthusiastically. But if you want to move your garden shed they’ll be on you with a court order faster than you can say English Heritage.

So when the team behind council-provoking Leamington Spa nightclub Smack (see last year’s interview with its confrontational owner Steve Smith) wanted to add a roof terrace to their pub The Duke, they hit the predictable brick wall. Rather than take the council’s refusal lying down, they simply removed the roof to the pub instead!

What’s left is a very unusual boozer indeed, one with such a modern feel that your granddad wouldn’t even know it was a pub. The floor is hand-stencilled, the furniture is not your average faux-distressed Fox and Firkin wood, and there are even sun loungers if sitting upright gets too much.

One just can’t help feeling it could do with a Wimbledon-esque retractable roof for when rains threatens to stop play on the central court…