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In 2023 a 50th Anniversary Award was made to the pub as it had been serving cask ale and been an entry in CAMRA's first Good Beer Guide and is still selling cask today. The beer then was Charrington's IPA. So one beer then and two now - but in the interim the other 3 handpmups were often in use and hopefully sales will recover to allow another cask beer to appear.
With a Grade II listing and inclusion in CAMRA's London Regional Inventory of historic pub interiors, you won't be surprised by this pub's fine interior. Although it is clear some parts are missing, the central servery and much more has survived as another marvelous celebration of pub architecture, including some impressive etched and cut glass and the Lincrusta ceiling. Quiz night Thu, upstairs lounge bar with a pool table and an outside drinking area. Huge, clear glass windows lighten the place up but, sadly, are not the originals. Modern menu but by no means a gastro pub. On an October visit, the two guest beers were Elgood’s Black Dog and Windsor & Eton Knight of the Garter.
Historic Interest
Grade II listing:- Public House with accommodation over. 1851, interior altered c.1889 and 1897. Stock brick facade with rendered sill band to front, cornice to front and right-hand side and rendered ground-floor side wall. Roof not seen. Rectangular plan with entrance to right-hand side. Dark timber and glass frontage to public house, with curved glass flanks, central door (now blocked) and side door, with narrow mullions between treated as columns, and with small toplights under frieze, which has dentilled cornice. Heavy panels to timber dado. The composition is framed by pilasters with Corinthian capitals, and by set-back door with half glazing to side. The upper floors make a strong composition, three windows wide, the first floor with margin light glazing and central pediment; all windows have flat projecting lintels supported on console brackets. Sashes to second floor, again with projecting lintels supported on console brackets. The rear windows have sashes under gauged brick heads, those to first floor with margin lights. Projecting rear ablution block there by 1897 (not shown on plan of 1873).
The pub interior of the late nineteenth century survives well. Entered now from the right-hand side, there is an original central island bar, with small bar back and optic stand, whose cradle is later. Cast-iron columns with Corinthian capitals and lincrusta ceiling. A good collection of c.1900 mirrors in the back bar, which retains a late nineteenth-century fireplace with round-arched grate . At the entrance some partitioning survives, with some renewed glass. A fragment of the frieze moulding survives behind inserted food counter, and dado panelling survives around the principal bar space. To rear a pool room has early twentieth-century panelling. To side, stairs with late nineteenth-century dado panelling lead to upper floors, which have not been inspected. Below, a series of cellars, originally also a kitchen and pot room, extend under the roadway.
Three star - A pub interior of outstanding national historic importance
Listed status: II
The Island Queen still retains many delightful internal features from the golden age of London pub building and internal design, with perhaps the most arresting being the glazed screenwork.
The Island Queen, built in 1851, rises proudly above the adjacent terraces in this smart part of Islington. It was altered internally in 1889 and 1897 and, although various partitions around the central servery have been removed, much remains from that time.
The ground-floor frontage is a timber and glass screen and behind it is an extraordinarily high bar area. A disused door on the left hand side announces “Saloon Bar” in etched glass - unfortunately, the corridor it led to has been opened up, although the high level etched glazing survives. Historic survivals within include the impressive two tier bar counter, the stillion in the centre of the servery, two cast-iron columns with Corinthian capitals and a full-height timber and glass screen forming a (now doorless) room to the rear right. On the right hand counter is a lengthy two bay pot rack of considerable age which has a very pretty etched glass frontage. There is a further glazed screen on the right creating a corridor which leads to a staircase to the first floor. Impressive etched and cut glass is signed ‘R Morris & Son, 239 Kennington Road. SE’, a firm who provided their wares to many a London pub in the late-Victorian years. Other features of note are the Lincrusta ceiling and pretty mosaic flooring in front of the left and right-hand entrances. At the rear on the left is a late 19th century fireplace with a round-arched grate (the old mirrors in this area were installed in 1979). Throughout the pub, the dado panelling survives. Tragically, most of the original window glass has been lost to clear replacements, but the attractively patterned top lights remain.
The Island Queen, built in 1851, rises proudly above the adjacent terraces in this smart part of Islington. It was altered internally in 1889 and 1897 and, although various partitions around the central servery have been cleared away, much remains from this great age of London pub building. The ground-floor frontage is a timber and glass screen and behind it is an extraordinarily high bar area. Historic survivals include the bar counter, the stillion in the middle of the serving area, vestiges of an inner porch on the left, two cast-iron columns and a full-height timber and glass screen forming a (now doorless) room to the rear right. There is a further screen on the right creating a corridor to the upstairs rooms. There is also some impressive etched and cut glass signed ‘R Morris & Son, 239 Kennington Road. SE’ who provided their wares to many a London pub in the late-Victorian years. Other features are the Lincrusta ceiling and pretty mosaic in front of the left and right-hand entrances. Tragically, most of the original window glass has been lost to clear replacements.
Island Queen, London
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