Midland Hotel, Hendon (Mids)

This is an old railway hotel, built in 1889-90 to serve the nearby Midland Railway station. The handsome frontage includes a broad decorated arch over the main entrance to the pub. The date of construction is inscribed over the arch, and also in a bas relief panel in the centre of the first-floor balcony.

The large front bar has been created by knocking together at least two smaller rooms and an off-sales area. Two doors open into the bar from a rectangular central vestibule: a third door or opening for off sales has now been blocked off, and a corner door into what used to be a separate saloon bar has also been blocked. The wooden panelled counter and the back of bar are of no great antiquity, but some older wooden panelling survives on the wall to the right of the bar as you face it and around some of the windows. The ceiling is patterned with deep relief - with a tessellation of octagons and squares to the left of the bar, and with diamonds set in large divided squares to the right (the different patterns appear to confirm that this space was formerly two separate rooms). There is a surviving bell push to the right of the fireplace. The upper parts of the arch-shaped windows are leaded, with a fan pattern in the left-hand part of the room and rather surprising Art Deco-style motifs to the right.

The rear room, accessible through a door space to the left of the front bar counter, has a curved counter which appears older than that in the front. It has wooden edging with a dark green inlay. The bar back consists of grey-painted wooden panelling which again appears older than that in the front bar. A well-crafted modern glazed partition separates the front and rear serving areas. An old skylight has recently (2018) been exposed by the removal of a false ceiling, but the walls of this room have been stripped of old panelling and the fireplace is modern.

In sum, although there has been a considerable amount of modernisation and modification, the old layout of the pub can still be discerned and several features of interest survive from earlier days.