Giving an old English pub a new chapter.

The Duke of Cumberland’s Head is a 16th-century pub in the Oxfordshire village of Clifton, acquired as the first property in a new collection of independent pubs and inns, Jack Whipp Inns.

The ambition was to create a genuinely great country pub: somewhere rooted in its village and its history, but with enough character and confidence to become a destination in its own right. The challenge was to make it feel considered without becoming polished, and distinctive without losing everything people love about an English pub.

We began by defining the positioning and personality of The Duke, drawing on the building, its setting and the stories already attached to it. From there, we developed the brand identity and creative direction, creating a visual and verbal world that felt characterful, slightly eccentric and grounded in the English countryside.

The work extended across the entire experience. We considered how the brand should live through the interiors, menus, food and drink, photography, website, events and communications; making sure the personality established on paper could actually be felt when someone walked through the door.

Alongside The Duke, we worked on the development of Jack Whipp Inns, establishing the foundations for a wider collection of pubs with bedrooms. Rather than creating a single brand to be repeated from property to property, the idea was to develop a clear point of view that could connect a collection of individual places, each with its own history and character.

That meant thinking beyond the first opening: defining what should remain consistent as the group grows, where individual pubs should be allowed to behave differently, and how Jack Whipp Inns could become recognisable without making every property feel the same.

The result is a brand built around the things that make a good pub worth returning to: generosity, character, a strong sense of place and the feeling that it could only really exist where it does.