Scottish Stores, London

The Scottish Stores retains an incredibly intact partitioned interior of 1901 consisting of three separate bars and as such is one of the rarest of the few surviving partitioned interiors in London.

Rebuilt 1900-1 by architects Wylson and Long, probably for James Kirk. It is a five-storey building of brown glazed brick and buff terracotta with polished pink and grey granite on the ground floor, and en suite with the corner block.

The interior is of a central servery surrounded by three distinct compartments created by two floor to ceiling screens. One screen runs back from the street front to the rear wall and has some etched glass panels and lots of plain bevelled ones creating the right hand bar.

Another impressive screen is parallel to the street incorporating the bar back with shallow double-curved arches. This creates the front and rear rooms. The cornice mouldings indicates all the original partitions survive and only doorway width gaps in them have made to enable customers to walk all around the pub. Above the gap between the right-hand and rear bars there is an architrave (?) held up by carved brackets which indicates there was always a door here. Also, the gap between the front and rear bars looks like it was originally a door.

The gap between the front and right rooms look it has been created by carefully removing one panel in the partition. To the left of the gap from front bar to rear bar there is what looks like a doorway but it has been filled by the section of the partition that was removed to form a doorway gap as it is identical to the part of the partition between the gap and the bar counter. Presumably the door originally led to the toilets, which are now accessed by a wide gap from the rear bar.

The right hand door is no longer in use (entrance to the pub being via the far left-hand door) and has a shallow vestibule with a figure ‘1’ on the inside of the inner door.

The right hand bar has fielded panelling to two-thirds height with a set of coloured lithographs of hunting scenes by Cecil Aldin of 1900, set into frames in the panelling. High up over the bar-back the partition has a cartouche inscribed 'THE SCOTTISH STORES 1901' and below it detail in relief in the spandrels. What looks like the original bar counter is curved at both ends and there is cupboard in the front. New tiling in front of the counter.

The front bar has fielded panelling to two-thirds height and also on the left-hand wall are some of the coloured lithographs of hunting scenes by Cecil Aldin. The woodwork in the servery of the partition has a curious mixture of Gothic and Jacobean detailing and there is more detail in relief in the spandrels. Some lower shelving remains on the left but most has been lost to a couple of fridges. The front bar counter looks to be the original to which more modern panels have been added. Near the gap in the bar counter there is some suspended wood down from the ceiling which may indicate there was a dumb waiter here originally? New tiling in front of the counter. Note the figure ‘2’ to the side of the middle double (disused) doors.

The rear bar has fielded panelling on the back wall, including another coloured lithograph of a hunting scene. The bar counter here looks to be the original and above it is a wide hatch that is also part of the partition across the centre of the pub. Above the ‘hatch’ the screen has 5 glazed panes and just below the ceiling a clock on a bracket. New tiling in front of the counter. On the rear left there is a staircase with a newel post having Jacobean detailing and an octagonal finial of Arts and Crafts character. The screenwork around the staircase has multiple etched glass panels. A doorway in the screen leads back to the front bar. Some external etched glass panels remain.

In 2015 it changed from a pub called the Flying Scotsman known to have strippers performing throughout the day to the welcoming to all bright and clean pub now selling a wide range of real ales. Fortunately (miraculously?) the interior fittings survived pretty much unmolested, helped by the buildings Grade II listing and a detailed interior description. The restoration won the pub the CAMRA Historic England Conservation Award in the 2016 Pub Design Awards.

In front of the left and right entrances the remnants of ‘The Scottish Stores’ mosaics were in 2015 covered over by modern tiling (they say with the agreement of Historic England) and the pub reverted to its original name.

In 2016 the pub was extended into the adjacent property on the left hand side facing the pub. The connection is through narrow doorway from the front bar and has had no effect on the ambiance of the original building. Warning: often may have very loud music.