Royal George, London

Grade II listing:- Public house with staff flat over. 1939-40. By AE Sewell, LRIBA, architect to Mssrs. Truman, Hanbury and Buxton, brewers to replace a public house of the same name in Drummond Street. Stock brick between bands of artificial stone to ground floor and attic, green slate roof. Rear stacks. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and cellars on rectangular plot with curved corners. Corner entrances to former public (north) and saloon (south) bars, and central entrance to former private bar; all have double doors. Band of six 2-light sash windows either side of central entrance. First floor has large 2-light casements under stone heads, four in centre and one on each corner; similar casements form a strip in attic, set back under projecting eaves and with set-back corners dominated by relief sculptures of eagles. Access to upper flat in Wellesley Road, where a door in similar style sits under first-floor tripartite window with stone jambs. INTERIOR: the interior originally consisted of lounge and public bar at either end, with private bar in centre and games room at rear now occupied by food counter. These bars now united, but central counter remains. This, the back bar and the walls and supporting columns to frieze height all with veneer panelling typical of the late 1930s, with banded decoration to bar and fitted seats to former lounge area clad in the same timber. The chimney-pieces are most elaborately treated, with marquetry decoration, that to the public bar with small panels contrasting the steam age of the 1830s with the radios and cocktails of the 1930s; a larger marquetry panel in the lounge depicts the sailing ship The Royal George. Banded coving over bar fascia and to cornices; inset roundels in ceiling serve later C20 light fittings. Included as a remarkably complete example of a 1930s pub, with excellent marquetry panels depicting features from the style of the period done with charm and panache.