Stags Head, London

A typical street-corner ‘local’ for Truman’s with much of its original 1930s interior.

The Stag’s Head was completed in 1936 to designs by Truman’s prolific in-house architect A E Sewell, built to replace a pub dating back to at least 1856 which had served the workers of the factories and canal wharves associated with Shoreditch’s furniture trade. The pub rebuilding formed part of wider inter-war redevelopment, which saw new factories constructed - including the Players Cigarette factory (now Acme Studios) - and streets of terraced housing replaced with residential blocks, most notably the mid-1930s New Era Estate to the west of the pub. As a street-corner ‘local’, the Stag’s Head represents a Truman’s smaller-scale pubs of the period, demonstrating the brewery’s ‘house style’ and many typical features drinkers of the time might have expected. The pub has a western public bar and adjoining games room and a saloon bar and associated dining room to the east. The distinct bars to either side are now undivided, but the pub is centrally split by a narrow off-sales, which has had opening inserted but otherwise survives well, with its original service counter, dividing screens with glazed upper sections, and a casement for a display window (annotated as a ‘showcase’ on Sewell’s plan of 1935).

The public bar is simply furnished with dado-height matchboard panelling throughout. The curved counter continues this treatment and is bordered with a cream and brown chequered tile base with a brass foot rail, typical of Truman’s 1930s pubs. The bar-back has its original mirrors behind the shelving and a band of back-lit panels with incised opal glass advertising ‘BURTON BREWED BITTER’ at the top. The public bar was originally divided from its games room by a panelled screen, the upper portion of which remains. This room continues the matchboard panelling and would have been served by the short return section of the counter. The south wall has an original brick fireplace, with a terracotta relief of a leaping stag. Either side of the fireplace are original doors leading to toilets; the men’s retaining original white tilework with green borders.

The superior quality of the adjacent saloon bar is indicated by the three-quarter height panelling, with inlaid lettering to the architrave advertising the brewery’s beers, including ‘Eagle Ale’ and ‘Oatmeal Stout’. The unified saloon is served by its original curved bar counter with chequer-tile border and rail. The saloon counter has a more fashionable treatment, with Moderne horizontal banding opted for here. This counter originally served both saloon rooms, with a central screen having been removed. Behind the counter, the bar-back is consistent with the public bar. This integrates a remarkably small publican’s office alongside a dumbwaiter, which connects to the kitchens above for ease of service of meals to the original saloon dining room. Fixed benching is fitted throughout the saloon rooms, in contrast of the public bar. There are two identical brick fireplaces to the east wall, serving the formerly distinct spaces. These both have leaping stag terracotta reliefs which are set within tuck-pointed brickwork and rows of stacked tiles, creating a banded effect to reflect the bar counter. Embossed Truman’s mirrors are integrated within the fielded panelling above the fireplaces, giving further evidence of the brewery’s 1930s ‘house style’. To the centre of the south wall is a multi-paned bowed window, either side of which are original doors leading to WCs; the women’s toilet on the left (originally the men’s) retaining its original tilework. Between the two saloon room fireplaces is an inserted door through to a 1970s function room.