Roundabout Inn
"The project brings the pub to the street and street into the pub - all while keeping the community at heart"
What started as a request to fix a grease trap, tidy up the kitchen and replace a front fence turned into something a little more ambitious.
The Roundabout Inn sits right on the main street of Gloucester, a small town on the edge of the Barrington Tops. It is a popular pub, a very public building, and in a small town, everyone has an opinion. So when we started proposing a new street-facing kitchen, a few people wondered what the hell we were doing.
The existing kitchen, courtyard and street felt disconnected. When the pub was busy, patrons had to move through the building and around the courtyard just to order food. We saw an opportunity to turn that problem into something positive — pushing the kitchen towards the street and introducing a new pizza window directly onto the footpath.
The new kitchen platform became more than just a place to order food. It creates a threshold between the pub and the street, with a generous hardwood bench built into the existing front fence. People can sit, eat, chat, wait for a pizza or simply watch the town go by.
That same idea carries into the courtyard, where the new roof structure and seating work together to create a more flexible outdoor space. The building is deliberately less of a boundary and more of a meeting point.
The material palette takes its cues from Gloucester. Glazed tiles are a familiar feature along the main street, while large hardwood decks are common throughout the town. Here, those references are reinterpreted through warm glazed tiles, horizontal hardwood boards and a lightweight steel roof structure.
And because it is a pizza window, we figured the tiles should feel a little bit like a pizza.
We also like the idea that architecture doesn't always have to be precious. Sometimes it can just make it easier to order a pizza, sit in the sun and say g’day to someone walking past.
The project is a small intervention, but it is deliberately public. A private pub giving something back to the street — creating a place where the community can stop, gather and participate in the life of the building.
Not everyone might love it. But we reckon everyone will order a pizza and say g’day.
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