Two Brakspear pubs triumph at National Pub & Bar Awards

July 11, 2025

National Pub & Bar Awards double County Winners Richard Brown and Manu Bhatt with BDM Stuart Brown

Congratulations to teams at The Running Horses and The Leicester Arms, who were named as County Winners for Surrey and Kent respectively in this year’s National Pub & Bar Awards.

Richard Brown, who runs the pubs alongside business owner Manu Bhatt, said:

“These awards are for our teams, who work so hard every day to deliver fantastic food, drink and service to our guests. We’ll be back next year to win the top award!”

Two other Brakspear pubs also reached the County Nominees stage of the Awards: The Belgian Arms in Holyport and The Nag’s Head in Abingdon, part of our Honeycomb Houses managed division.

The National Pub & Bar Awards included more than 250 County Nominees from across the UK which were whittled down to 90+ County Winners, 13 Regional Winners and one overall Pub of the Year. Brakspear has won the top accolade twice: in 2023, it went to The Running Horses while in 2022 The Frogmill, part of Honeycomb Houses, took the prize.

This year’s award winners were announced at a presentation and reception at Big Penny Social in London, attended by hundreds of nominees and others from the pub and bar industry.

County Winner for Surrey, The Leicester Arms in Penshurst