Duke of Buckingham, Kingston

A three-storey red-brick suburban pub built in the early 1930s by Hodgsons’ Kingston  Brewery with many original features inside. 

The Hodgsons brewery crest sits prominently above the main entrance, depicting a ‘K’, a tun and the three salmon of the borough arms.  A brewery plaque can be found elsewhere on the exterior. A Courage cockerel still sits atop an old post and leans drunkenly to one side - apparently it has done so safely for over thirty years.

The grand main entrance is a semi-circular lobby with two sets of curving double doors leading off it, one set with brass plaques that read ‘Public Bar’. The larger room on the right is an amalgamation of two rooms but retains some separation thanks to a large pillar that contains a fireplace on either side of it. Both rooms contain half-height wood panelling that surely dates from the early 1930s – apart from a small section where an outside door has been blocked up (in the late 1980s) and sympathetic panelling has been inserted to match the older panelling on either side of it.  The curving bar counter still occupies its original position, serving both rooms. Above it is an octagonal, leaded skylight. Parts of the central stillion and the wooden fireplace surrounds are original. The additional room beyond the arch in the right-hand room was once a kitchen and before that a store room. 232 words.