Dolphin, Hackney

A renowned pub with an opulently decorated interior that enhances a drab Hackney streetscape.

This is a grand three-storey pub with bold white-painted quoins and a striking cornice and frieze topped by a balustrade with urns. The ground floor with its ample glazing has four granite pilasters with composite capitals.

Built around 1850, perhaps with an earlier core, it underwent a lavish remodelling at the turn of the century. Much has changed since that time but the wall tiling is a very special survival. It is by W. B. Simpson and Sons who tiled many a London pub. The star feature is the right-hand wall which lined a former corridor (the  tiled floor of which is still extant).There are blue and white tiles with pairs of birds and swirling Arabesque patterns; near the entrance is a vast tiled panel depicting the legend of Arion, whose tale of being thrown overboard by avaricious sailors and then saved by a friendly dolphin is narrated in an inscription. On the other side of the pub an entrance panel depicts Diana the Huntress; then come more blue and white bird-and-foliage panels.

There is a large central servery, and much of the counter here dates from the c.1900 refit, as does the lower part of the substantial stillion, together with its marble top. However, the upper fitting is clearly from a much later date. Originally, the public bar was on the left, with the saloon to the right. Behind the saloon was a lounge, reached by the corridor from the street. It has now been partly subsumed into an enlarged saloon bar with the remainder devoted to the ladies’ loo, placed behind a modern partition. The separate room to the rear on the left was formerly a dining room, but much of the panelling here seems of a recent date.

A striking feature of the interior is the full height glazed partitions featuring stylised depictions of the eponymous dolphin; however, they have evidently undergone a rearrangement at some stage to create the spaces we see today. There is a matchboard-panelled ceiling superimposed with Jacobean style mouldings in timber, and blockwood floors. Cast iron pillars supporting the ceiling have regrettably been boxed in, presumably to protect them - this adds a jarring note to what is otherwise a magnificent interior.