Bristol-based independent café chain Boston Tea Party has beaten worldwide brands to win a major national design award for its newest venue.
The sensitive restoration project earned it the coveted national award of Café Design of the Year at the Café Life Awards 2015 in London. 
The Plymouth outlet – the 16th for the family-run company – opened this summer in the city’s historic Grade II listed Jamaica House, which has been renovated to create a contemporary, two-storey venue overlooking the city’s waterfront.
Boston Tea Party beat competition from international chains including Starbucks to win the prized title, with judges praising the Plymouth venue’s “great contemporary design” and “eclectic mix of furnishings and lightings”.
Boston Tea Party managing director Sam Roberts said: “The judges felt there had been a real effort made to retain the original features of the build at Jamaica House at the same time as creating something fresh, new, vibrant and welcoming for Plymouth, and we were over the moon as this was exactly our intention.
“We’re incredibly proud to have earned this award, and to have created a new venue for Plymouth of such quality that its design has achieved national acclaim. As part of our ethos to encourage sustainability throughout, our design team relied heavily on using salvaged furniture and fittings wherever possible, but employed the second-hand pieces in a fun and creative way.”
The Café Life Awards are held to encourage good design practice in the sector, and reward companies which manage to launch venues which combine innovative design with customer comfort and commercial viability.
Plymouth’s Boston Tea Party opened in July after a major renovation of the historic Jamaica House building in Sutton Harbour, which had stood empty for some time.
Two floors of the three-storey building were transformed to create a café-bar able to seat 150 inside, and the venue was given its own unique character with a mix of up-cycled, salvaged and restored furniture and fittings installed.
These included old school chairs, and old gymnasium flooring was used as wall cladding.
Boston Tea Party prides itself on a strong, socially-driven approach, working hard to give each new venue its own individual design, adapting it to the new location to the benefit of the local community.
The family owned and run success story has grown steadily in the South West region in recent years but sought to retain its independent spirit throughout. The company is preparing to open its 17th cafe in Bath in November, with plans for new venues to open in Stratford and the Moseley area of Birmingham early next year.
The chain already runs cafes in towns and cities including Bristol, Bath, Cheltenham, Worcester, Salisbury, Birmingham, Exeter and Barnstaple.
