Railway Hotel, Edgware

Grade II listing:- The Railway Hotel. Public house with attached off-sales block. 1931 by A.E. Sewell, for Truman Hanbury Buxton, brewers. Picturesque half-timbered road house. PLAN: rectangular, with stepped extensions to rear. Arched link to separate building, originally used for off-sales. MATERIALS: half-timbering, brick-faced ground floor and rear elevations, some stone quoins, tiled roof. EXTERIOR: Three storeys. Main front with two gables, the right hand part projecting, the upper floors jettied. Central four-centred arch to main doorway, which consists of fielded panels, with grilles to centre; upper lights flank a monogram panel reading TBH (for the brewery). Bay windows to ground floor front. Moulded stone corbels at corners, with carved figures above: that to left shows a man with grapes in his hair, holding a bunch in his hands; that to right shows an old woman with hops in hair and arms. Sun-dial on north-east corner inscribed TRUMANS. Six-light bay window to left hand first floor gable. Three-light window to second floor over main entrance with three panels of heraldic plasterwork: the central panel of a helmet surmounts the date 1931. Three tall brick stacks above roof ridge, with decorative brickwork. North-east side elevation with a large chimneystack with diapered brickwork; projecting entrance porch beyond. Stepped rear elevation with half-timbered projecting gable to right, stepped gables to centre, two lesser chimneystacks. The pub is linked to the off-sales building with a tiled archway carried on timber uprights, the inscription panel within which reads THE RAILWAY HOTEL. The off-sales building (now used as a separate shop) is a deep rectangular structure, with a gable end to the street above a half-timbered elevation to upper floors, with a medieval-style shop front to the ground floor, with a four-light shop window and a fielded door serving the upper floors to the right; irregular fenestration to the upper floors, with a projecting gable with barge boards. Angled doorway; decorative spandrels above with bird and foliage ornament. The courtyard-facing elevation has a shop window to the ground floor, with sun and moon decoration to the spandrels; four-light windows to the upper floors, with a strapwork cartouche between sporting the brewery monogram of THB. INTERIOR: ground floor only seen. This retains many original fittings, including four-centred arched fireplaces with stone surrounds at each end; fielded oak panelling to 2/3 height of walls and to front of bar counter; canopy to bar counter; behind bar shelves with four-centred arch recesses; chequered tile floor with wrought iron foot-rest to former lounge (left-hand) bar; painting signed E. Court over fireplace in former lounge bar showing original appearance of pub; heavy beams to ceiling. Upper floors thought to include former masonic lodge and luncheon room with hammerbeam roof, situated over lounge bar. ANCILLARY FEATURES: Pub sign in form of a gibbet, reaching over pavement. HISTORY: This is an excellent example of a picturesquely conceived interwar road house, designed in a medieval idiom. The architect, A.E. Sewell, was Truman's in-house architect. Plans dated October 1929 were approved in November 1929. The building, located opposite Edgware parish church, is a notable interwar feature of what was to become one of the classic suburbs in Greater London. It exemplifies the modern idea of wayside hospitality, as revised for motor car-borne trade (viz the large car park to rear), but expressed in a highly romanticised style. It is among the best examples of a picturesque historicist road-house in the country.