Windermere, South Kenton

This is a largely unaltered inter-war suburban pub retaining original art deco style wall panelling, original bar counters and bar-backs, separate rooms, and an attractive and distinctive fireplace in the Saloon Bar. 

Right by South Kenton station this is a good place to see how a typical large, inter-war suburban pub was planned and fitted up. It was built in 1938 or 1939 by the Courage Brewery for a new middle-class housing estate and is a large, red-brick, Dutch-gabled structure. There are three rooms. In around 2018 the Public Bar, facing Windermere Avenue, had a door cut into the wall to connect it to the Saloon Bar and is now used largely as a games room. On the station side there is a Saloon Bar with a lounge behind. Original features include the large inner porches, bar counters, back fittings, wall panelling, wavy cornices, doors between the saloon and lounge, and fireplaces - the fireplace in the Saloon Bar has charming pictorial tiles with windmills in the surround, and an advertising mirror above it with the Courage cockerel and a clock: the shape of the top reflects that of the gables outside. Sadly the original tiling in the loos was covered over by new work in about 2013.

The only significant change is the loss of the off-sales compartment which has been incorporated into the public bar. The fixed seats are additions and the superstructures on the saloon and lounge counters look like work of the 1950s or 1960s.