Elgin, Notting Hill

The Elgin has the crown jewel of Victorian screens with perhaps the most colourful one anywhere, featuring jewel-like and spectacular gilded glazing. It has to be seen to be believed.

Rebuilt in 1867, the architects being Hammack & Lambert, it was refurbished in 1898. On the corner of a busy junction near Ladbroke Grove tube station, this  pub has some spectacular Victorian ornamentation. Three distinct rooms are still clearly discernible although they are now interlinked. The star performer is the room in the northern part which is screened off from the corner bar by a wonderful timber and glass screen of exceptional exuberance. The grey etched glazing, gilded patterns and facetted jewel-like details gleam and sparkle. CAMRA is unaware of any other pub screen like it. Then there is a bar-back of rare richness, embellished with delicate wood carving that is reminiscent of seventeenth-century detailing, gilded mirrors and a frieze of bas-relief apples. Finally, on the side wall are coloured tile strips and more gilded mirrors displaying foliage, hops, butterflies and birds in flight.

The counters are original too and are classic examples of that curious feature found in London pubs but not, apparently, elsewhere – doors to allow the servicing of the beer engines in times gone by. At the back of the pub is a large lounge with fielded dado panelling round the walls, and a skylight at the rear. A sad loss in the corner bar is the modern replacement of the original Victorian bar-back, with its glass and metal shelving, as well as the metal framed gantry looking somewhat out of place here. Behind the servery is an office with some fine decorative glass.