Moka at the former Ryder Seed Hall won the public vote, Haven Place took two prizes and Jubilee Square won its class. Every 2026 winner and commended project.

Moka, the restaurant in the former Seed Hall on Holywell Hill, has won the public vote in the St Albans Civic Society Building and Design Awards 2026. The society announced its winners at the Abbey Theatre on 13 October and has now published the full list.

Haven Place, three Passivhaus-informed family homes on Park Street Lane, did best of all. It won its category and the society’s top honour, the Trevelyan Prize.

The awards cover projects finished in 2024 and 2025. The society’s shortlist page calls them its “bi-annual” awards.

The winners

St Albans Civic Society Building and Design Awards 2026, from the society's results page
CategoryWinnerCommended
Social housingThe Hedges, Woollam CrescentNone
Domestic, new buildHaven Place, Park Street LaneNo.1 Mount Pleasant
Domestic, refurbishment and restorationBankhart House, Fishpool StreetNone
Commercial, residential and mixed useJubilee Square, Victoria StreetOld Electricity Works, Campfield Road; Flats 1-5, 42 Verulam Road
Commercial refurbishment, officesQueen's House, Victoria StreetVerulam Point, Station Way
Commercial refurbishment, hospitalityIbēros, George StreetMoka, Holywell Hill
People's AwardMoka, Holywell Hill
Trevelyan PrizeHaven Place, Park Street Lane

Two community projects also received the Public Realm Award, with £100 each towards their next stage of work:

  • the Civic Centre Rose Garden regeneration, a community interest company run by volunteers
  • St Albans and District Heritage, a project set up by the Arc and Arc

Moka: the public’s choice

Moka was commended by the judges in the hospitality category, then won the People’s Award. It was the society’s first People’s Choice Award, run with the St Albans Times, and voting closed on 6 October.

The building is the former Seed Hall, which the society describes as Grade II listed and “closely associated with Samuel Ryder”, the St Albans seed merchant who gave golf the Ryder Cup. The shortlist says it reopened as the Indian restaurant Moka Dining in December 2025.

The judges singled out its “impressive open interior and distinctive domed glazed roof”. They said the new design “sits comfortably alongside the original architecture”.

Haven Place: two prizes for three houses

Two timber-clad modern houses with steep asymmetric roofs, tall windows and a garage door, on a gravel drive with trees behind
Haven Place, Park Street Lane, winner of the new-build category and the Trevelyan Prize. Photo: via St Albans Civic Society

Haven Place is a private development of three homes. The society says it was built with off-site timber framing, high insulation and airtightness “informed by Passivhaus principles”.

The judges called it “an excellent demonstration of how Passivhaus can be built on a budget that isn’t eye-watering”.

The Trevelyan Prize is named after the society’s founders; Sir Geoffrey Trevelyan founded the society in 1961. It has usually gone to conservation and restoration work, and past winners include the cathedral’s Welcome Centre. This year the society says it “deliberately broadened its scope” to reward environmental achievement as well, and gave it to a new build.

Jubilee Square and the city centre schemes

A four and five storey brick block of flats with balconies and a curved corner, behind ornamental grasses and a low railing on Victoria Street
Jubilee Square, Victoria Street, winner of the mixed-use category. Photo: via St Albans Civic Society

Jubilee Square won the mixed-use category. The shortlist says it was built by Morgan Sindall Construction on the site of the old police station on Victoria Street. The judges said it gives “a lighter aesthetic compared to the existing buildings on Victoria Street”.

Further along Victoria Street, at No.58, Queen’s House won the office category. It is a former hat factory, now a coworking and office building, which the judges said brings “this prominent corner plot back to life”.

Several of the winners reused old buildings rather than replacing them:

  • Ibēros, the tapas restaurant on George Street, is a refurbished listed building. The shortlist says it opened on 25 November 2025.
  • the Old Electricity Works on Campfield Road is a locally listed early 20th century industrial building, now homes
  • 42 Verulam Road kept its curved shape and the Rug Maker showroom, with five flats above and a set-back extra storey

Bankhart House, Fishpool Street

A white three storey timber-framed house on Fishpool Street with dark leaded windows and pale blue pargetting patterns on the render
Bankhart House, Fishpool Street, winner of the restoration category. Photo: via St Albans Civic Society

Bankhart House is a listed home on Fishpool Street. The society says its original windows were “painstakingly repaired”. The decorative render and pargetting on the front were reinstated “with reference to historic evidence”.

The council’s own homes

The social housing award went to The Hedges in Woollam Crescent, in the High Oaks area. It is St Albans City and District Council’s own scheme of 12 homes, finished in spring 2025. The judges said it shows “social housing can make a positive architectural contribution to its neighbourhood”.

What it means for you

  • Most of the winners can be seen from the street. Fishpool Street, Victoria Street, George Street and Holywell Hill are all a short walk from the city centre.
  • Moka and Ibēros are working restaurants, so the two hospitality interiors the judges praised are open to customers.
  • The awards are judged on finished buildings. For schemes still going through planning in the district, see our St Albans planning news page.

Sources