White Admiral, Harlow

Two-storey building of brick and render with tiles on the ground floor. It was built in 1953 designed by Sidney C Clark for Charringtons Brewery. It was the second pub opened in Harlow New Town and is the earliest there to survive intact (the Essex Skipper, of 1951, has been internally altered). This is one of the earliest newly built post-war pubs in the whole country and amazingly remains remarkably intact with its two bars, off sales and lots of original fittings.

The Public Bar (originally the Saloon Bar) on the left retains its door but the baffle just inside is modern as the photo on the wall confirms it was not there when the pub opened. There are another two modern baffles by a door on the Ward Hatch side which was there originally but now is only for access to the outside smoking area. The counter is the original situated on a tiled plinth with an inlaid top and curved at both ends but it has modern mouldings applied over the front of it and looks very inter-war in style. The bar back is original with some modernisation – note the ‘Charringtons’ wording at the top which was illuminated in the past. The tiled fireplace is a replacement, and panelling has been taken off the far/east wall. Fixed seating is modern as none in the photo of the pub just after it opened (not surprising for what was a saloon bar); the photo shows a terrazzo floor now covered by a carpet. Also, the photo shows that the vents (visible in the other bar) have been covered over in this bar. There is a small stock room/office on the east side of the severy, between the counters and the gents. It has an original glazed partition dividing it from the servery of the former public bar, covered over on the bar side.

The Saloon Bar (originally the Public Bar) on the right has a counter that is original, but modern mouldings have been applied over the front of it and it is also on a plinth. The bar back has at the top another ‘Charringtons’ wording no longer illuminated and some shelving could be old. The room has a panelled dado and curved panelling on top of the left and right sides of the counter all of which is very 1950s. The vents above the counter are still there. Originally there was a separate small room accessed via a door at the centre of the rear part of this bar – you can clearly see the ceiling coving stops before it and there are no ceiling roses in the rear section. In the late 1980s (?) the partition between the two spaces was taken out and the (former) public bar extended to the rear, the extra space possibly being used for games. It is not clear what the small room was for originally (it was a cleaning cupboard by the early 1980s).

There is a walkway between the two bars with the gents’ toilet off – there are modern tiles in the toilets and on the walkway walls. The ladies are, respectively, in small out-shuts on the outer sides of the two bars, and are completely original. The middle door on The Chantry side is to the off sales which remains but is now used for storage. Prior to a repainting in c.2020, the inn sign was different on each side – all pubs built in Harlow were named after butterflies and moths and a white admiral was illustrated on one side but on the other it was a sea lord.