This third and final part of the series about art deco pubs covers those in the suburbs of British towns and cities. For a general introduction looking at the history and development of art deco pubs please see the first article in the series Art Deco Pubs in the UK, Part 1: Beside the Sea.
The visually striking streamlined moderne style of most art deco pubs needed space and the expanding suburbs of the period provided a much better option than crowded city centres. The popularity of art deco coincided nicely with the improved pub movement of the 1920s and 1930s. This aimed to replace multiple small run down pubs with fewer but bigger and better licensed houses offering a wider range of facilities. These pubs were not only bigger but usually had gardens and car parks, so the suburbs were ideal. The new pubs were built in a variety of styles, with architects usually playing safe with Neo-Georgian and Mock Tudor designs. Architects who designed art deco pubs, with the exception of maybe of those in Nottingham and Great Yarmouth, built only one or two in the style. However most moderne pubs were built in the late 1930s and it is likely that there would have been more without World War II.
The moderne exterior architecture was combined with art deco interior features, including geometric or streamlined shapes and aluminium or chrome details on bar counters, walls floors, seating and glasswork. In most pubs these features have since been replaced but a few suburban art deco pubs have kept much of their original interiors. For this part of the survey I’ll start with some pubs that spearheaded the trend for art deco design, then look at those that have well preserved interiors, and finish with those that still have an unaltered moderne exterior.
Pioneers & Influencers
It’s quite tricky to pinpoint the first art deco pub. Quite a few pub refurbishments in the late 1920s and early 1930s included some art deco details and a few still survive. Of new builds the 1932 Three Pigeons in Halifax (in Part 2) has an art deco interior but a traditional exterior. For a classic Moderne exterior, the Crown in Nottingham built in 1933 may well be the first. And E.B, Musman’s Nags Head in Bishops Stortford which opened in 1934 is probably the first to use the influential Streamline Moderne style.
Crown, Nottingham
Western Boulevard, Wollaton, Nottingham, NG8 1PE
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Nottingham has no fewer than 7 art deco pubs and in the Crown Hotel includes one that was possibly the first to be built in the moderne style anywhere in the UK. W.B. Starr & E.B.H. Hall had established themselves as the city’s main pub architects and had built or rebuilt twenty or so in the 1920s and early 1930s. None had been art deco, but in 1933 they designed the Crown Hotel for Home Brewery in a striking moderne style. The style was already common in cinemas, and was starting to make an impact on factories, housing and hotels but until now had not been applied to pubs.
It has a flat roof, wide metal Crittall windows, and a central tower with carved stone ‘Home Ales’ lettering and a side tower-cum-chimney, all quite typically moderne. However it doesn’t quite fit the familiar curved streamline moderne style – that was to come later. If it had an art deco interior this has been replaced entirely. It’s away from the town centre on the main A52 and close to inter-war middle class housing so it also typifies the ‘improved pub’ ideal. Today it’s a popular estate pub with a focus on dining.
Nags Head, Bishop’s Stortford
216 Dunmow Road, Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire CM23 5HP
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The Grade II listed Nags Head was built in 1934 by the architect E.B. Musman for Benskins Brewery. Along with Harry Redfern (who I’ve written about elsewhere) Musman was one of the most respected pub architects of the inter war era and wrote for architectural journals on pub design. The Nags Head was his first moderne pub and his streamlined design with flat roof, curved wings and wraparound metal windows became a model for the style.
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The pub lost its original bar counter in a 2010 refit by brewers McMullens but the interior still has a number of art-deco features. There are two original fireplaces, one with a painting by Cosmo Clark showing pub games. The fixed seating in the bays curves elegantly beneath the metal windows and has a clever design where the window sills transform into side tables. The pub has a mainly food offer and sells McMullens cask ales. It’s a 20 minute walk from the town centre or the 508 bus towards Stansted Airport passes by.
Comet, Hatfield
St Albans Road, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9RH
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After the Nags Head Musman took his design a few steps further with the much larger Comet on the edge of Hatfield which opened in 1936. It’s in the same red brick with two curved wings but this time the two storey frontage is also curved. The Grade II listed Comet was also influential and is possibly the best known moderne pub in the UK.
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Almost all of the interior fittings have been replaced but you can still get a feel for the style of the original in the curved wings. The pub is named after the Comet aircraft and Musman commissioned Eric Kennington to design a tall carved plinth with the aeroplane on top. The original is in storage but there is now a copy on the patio outside. The Comet is now a hotel but the bar is open to the public, serving food and drink. The 302 bus from Hatfield station stops just outside and it’s just off the A1M.
Preserved Interiors
Scotland has three of the best preserved art deco pub interiors in the UK: the Steps Bar in Glasgow city centre (in Part 2), the Portland Arms in the Glasgow suburbs and Frews Bar in Dundee (both below).
Portland Arms, Glasgow
1169 Shettleston Road, Shettleston, Glasgow, G32 7NB
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The Portland Arms has not only the least altered but the most spectacular art deco pub interior in the UK. It has a large curved bar counter with an equally large matching canopy above. Island counters are common in Scottish pubs and the feature is ideally suited to the art deco version at the Portland with its curves and metal banding. In the centre of the bar is an oval gantry made from chrome plated tubing.
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The fixed seating against the wood panelled walls has wooden dividers, each with a metal match striker. There are four enclosed curved snugs, one in each corner, although only one is currently in use. The etched glass windows outside and above the porch have a typically art deco sun ray design. The Grade B listed pub has appeared a few times on TV, including police dramas like Shetland and Crime. The pub is in Shettleston in the east end and the No. 60 bus from Central Station will get you there. There is also a train from Queen Street Station (Low Level) stopping at Shettleston Station, a ten minute walk away.
Frews Bar, Dundee
117 Strathmartine Road, Coldside, Dundee, DD3 7SD
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The Grade C listed Frews Bar opened in 1915 but had a substantial refit in an art deco style in the 1930s. Most of the features are still there, including the metal “Crittall” windows, metal fronted bar counters, wood panelling and oval fixed tables. The walls of the pub are covered in sports photos and one of the rooms is called the ‘Sporting Memories Lounge’. The pub is in the Coldside district, close to both football grounds, and usually sells one real ale.
Nottingham’s art deco pubs include the pioneering Crown (above) and two that have preserved their original interiors, the Test Match and the Vale (both below). There are two other art deco pubs in the Nottingham suburbs, the Beechdale and the Wolds, and these (along with the Test Match and the Vale) are described in my earlier blog post, Art Deco Pubs in Nottingham.
Test Match, Nottingham
Gordon Square, West Bridgford, NG2 5LP
The Test Match in the suburb of West Bridgford wins the prize for having the best art deco pub interior in England. Only the Portland Arms (above) and the Steps Bar, both in Glasgow, stop it from being the UK’s best. Hardy & Hansons Brewers were based in Kimberley just outside Nottingham and were the last of the local breweries to build an art deco pub.
The two storey entrance hall has a sweeping staircase and the lounge behind has wood panelled walls and a long bar counter with brass banding. The lounge leads to the imposing assembly room which has the feel of a 1930s cinema with its curved ceiling and uplighting. The public bar, hidden at the back, is almost entirely unaltered with its banded bar counter and patterned terrazzo floor. The pub is one of only a few in England and Wales to have a Grade II* listing.
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Hardy & Hansons waited a long time to get permission to build the Test Match. Local West Bridgford magistrates had been resisting public house licences for 40 years, but the quality of the proposed design eventually won them over. It was designed in 1938 by A.C. Wheeler with a Neo Georgian rather than Moderne exterior, possibly to appease the magistrates. The assembly room and lounge is now used for dining and food is served all day, along with beers from Greene King, who now own the pub. The No 6 bus from the rail station will take you straight to the Test Match and others stop within a few minutes walk.
Vale, Nottingham
Mansfield Road, Daybrook, Nottingham, NG5 3GG
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In the 1920s T. Cecil Howitt was Nottingham City Council’s senior architect and he built the acclaimed new Council House at the end of the decade. Soon after he set up his own practice and built banks and civic buildings across the country plus art deco cinemas for Odeon. In the mid 1930s he was commissioned to a build the new Home Brewery in Daybrook in the north of Nottingham, and its brewery tap the Vale. The brewery, finished in 1936, is an imposing moderne building with a tall central tower.
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The Vale, like the Test Match, has a well preserved art deco interior. It was completed in 1937 in the moderne style with rounded wings at each end and with Crittall metal windows. Inside is a wood panelled lobby with stylish art deco detailing, and to the left is the unchanged smoke room with its original bar counter and more wood panelling. The panelling in this room has two circular HB carvings signifying Home Brewery. Howitt’s practice built several pubs in Nottingham right up to the 1960s but the Vale seems to have been the only one in the art deco style. The pub and its free standing sign are both Grade II listed. Today it succeeds in being both a destination dining pub and a community local, and serves up to six cask ales. Several buses, including the 56, 58, 59 & 60 will take you to the Vale from the city centre.
Ladies Mile, Brighton, BN1 8RA
2 Mackie Avenue, Patcham, Brighton, BN1 8RA
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The Ladies Mile pub in Patcham in Brighton has a traditional neo Georgian exterior but there is a feast of art deco delights inside. It has a curved and banded bar counter, a jazzy stained glass canopy, stylish doorways and elegant 1930s fireplaces with carvings. Look out also for the original nymph lamp on the counter. The pub was designed by Arthur Packham in 1935 as part of the Ladies Mile Estate, a large housing scheme by Scottish developer George Ferguson.
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The pub name is from from the old track to Stanham which was popular with female horseriders in the 19th century – it is commemorated by a carving on the fireplaces. It’s quite a community pub with events like workshops, a Saturday market, a quiz night and children’s parties. It serves food and has three cask ales, including Harvey’s Sussex Best.
Maggies, Birmingham
The Maggies, 165 Shirley Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, B28 9LA
The Maggies and the Baldwin are just over a mile from each other in Hall Green, a residential suburb in the south east of Birmingham. They are moderne pubs designed by Wood, Kendrick & Reynolds for Mitchells and Butlers Brewery in 1935 and 1937. Birmingham embraced the Improved pubs idea more than most with several in the southern suburbs, but these are the only ones in the moderne style.
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Maggies is the new name of the Three Magpies and has a mostly intact original interior. Externally it is brick built in the style of the Dutch architect Willem Dudok and retains its original doors and most of its metal windows. Inside there are two bars, a large lounge on the left created by merging three former bars and the public bar to the right. Both have original fixed seating, bar counters and plaster mouldings on the upper wall. Outside there is a bowling green, still in use, with a pavilion that like the pub, is Grade II listed.
Moderne exteriors
These pubs have preserved their moderne exteriors but have lost their original interiors.
Baldwin, Birmingham
230/240 Baldwin Lane, Hall Green, Birmingham, B28 0QB
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Of the two Hall Green pubs, the Baldwin is the more imposing, with its more substantial brick tower, but nothing of the original interior survives. It’s part of the Hungry Horse chain, and unlike the Maggies, serves food and cask beer. The best way by public transport from the city centre is a train from Moor Street Station to Hall Green for the Maggies or Yardley Wood for the Baldwin. The A15 bus runs between the two pubs every hour.
New Inn, Gildersome, Leeds
Church Street, Gildersome, Leeds LS27 7AE
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The New Inn at Gildersome on the outskirts of Leeds was built in the 1930s in a Moderne style and is probably the only surviving art deco pub in Yorkshire. The interior had lost most of its art deco look until the 1990s when a refurbishment by Samuels Smith’s brewery restored many of the original features. The bars have fixed seating, mirrors and art deco style fireplaces with wood surrounds and interior tiling. Old Brewery Bitter is on cask along with the range of Sam Smiths keg beers. Gildersome is south west of Leeds and the quickest way by public transport is the 229 Huddersfield bus from City Square.
Blue Peter, Derby
Shardlow Road, Alvaston, Derby, DE24 0JH
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The Blue Peter was the first of three almost identical moderne pubs on a ‘blue’ theme built for Offilers Brewery in 1935-36. F.H. Offiler, one of the two cousins who ran the brewery, was much influenced by the Improved Pubs movement and the idea of bigger and better pubs with more facilities. After building the large but fairly plain County Hotel and Grange Hotel in the early thirties the brewery commissioned architects Browning & Hayes to switch to a more exuberant design.
The Blue Peter is still quite striking from the outside, and in a nod to authenticity, the original metal windows have been replaced by UPVC in a similar style. Little of the original interior survives but the curved wings are still impressive. The other two pubs, the Blue Pool in Sinfin and the Blue Boy in Chaddesden are now supermarkets, but the original designs have been retained. The 1A, 1B and 1C buses to Alvaston from Derby bus station go past the Blue Peter.
Norman Warrior, Lowestoft
Fir Lane, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR32 2RB
The Norman Warrior is an estate pub on the edge of Lowestoft. It was designed for Lacons Brewery by Billy Ecclestone who featured in Part 1 of this series. It’s a brick built moderne pub not unlike his others, and still has its two rooms. One is a public bar which merges into a games room and the other is a lounge and restaurant.
Roundhouse, Dagenham, Greater London
Lodge Avenue / Porters Avenue, Dagenham, RM8 2HY
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The Art Deco London Map lists cinemas, factories and underground stations, but not a single pub. There are two art deco pubs in the centre of London which appear in Part 2 of this series (City Centres) but I’ve only managed to locate one in the suburbs, the Roundhouse in Dagenham.
It’s a huge, imposing pub on the Becontree Estate built in 1935 and designed by Alfred W. Blomfield, the chief architect at Watney Combe & Reid. Blomfield was a well regarded architect and his design for the Roundhouse was exhibited at the Royal Academy. The ground floor is indeed round, and there is an upper storey with a tower in the centre. Inside, the oval lounge at the back is still there but the tea room, saloon bar and public bar have been merged into one large room.
It was looking a bit the worse for wear on my visit but a refurbishment is underway and the pub is due to reopen at the end of October 2024. The old bowling alley at the rear of the pub became the Village Blues Club in 1969 and back in the day attracted acts like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Led Zeppelin and Rory Gallagher. It’s still an important live music pub with acts every weekend. There is a detailed account of the Roundhouse in Emily Cole’s important work on inter war pubs for Historic England (see sources below). The pub is a bit of a trek from Central London. I caught the District Line to Barking and then a 368 bus from outside the station.
Baffins, Portsmouth
127 Tangier Road, Baffins, Portsmouth, PO3 6PD
Since the late VIctorian period Portsmouth pub design had been dominated by architect A.E. Cogswell whose Tiles, Towers and Witches Hats houses were still being built into the 1920s. By Cogswell’s death in 1934 the tiles and towers were being replaced by less flamboyant and even bland new public houses. Brickwood’s Baffins, opened in 1937, was an exception and the only Portsmouth pub in the inter-war period to be built in an art deco style. It overlooks Baffins Pond and is a popular community pub now owned by Greene King.
Art Deco Cinemas converted to Pubs
In Part 2 covering art deco pubs in city centres, I looked at a few examples of art deco cinemas that have been converted into pubs. All were originally owned by Wetherspoons but a couple have now been sold to other pub companies. There are a few in the suburbs as well, and as before I’ll describe just one example and list a few others.
Clifton, Sedgley
Bull Ring, Sedgley, West Midlands DY3 1RX
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The Clifton in Sedgley, a few miles from Dudley, opened in 1937 and was one of a chain of Black Country cinemas founded by Sidney Clift. By the mid 30s Clift was concentrating on building “super cinemas”, more luxurious than the norm and holding more than 1000 people. All of them were, like the Sedgley Clifton, art deco in style and nine were built in three years.
Wetherspoons have kept the Clifton name and it’s now a large pub in their familiar style. Few of the original art deco internal features remain.
Other suburban art deco cinemas converted to pubs include the Godfrey Morgan in Maindee, Newport, South Wales, the Coronet in Holloway, London and the David Macbeth Moir in Musselburgh, east of Edinburgh.
Sources
Ainsworth, Paul. Real Heritage Pubs of the Midlands, Campaign For Real Ale, 2015
Cole, Emily. The Urban and Suburban Public House in Inter-War England, 1918-1939, Historic England, 2015
Eley, Philip & R.C Riley, The demise of demon drink? Portsmouth pubs 1900-1950, Portsmouth City Council, 1991
Green, Oliver. Art Deco, Amberley Publishing, 2018
Harwood, Elain. Art Deco Britain: Buildings of the Interwar Years, Twentieth Century Society, 2019
Camra’s Pubs & Clubs website https://camra.org.uk/pubs
Slaughter, Michael. Scotland’s True Heritage Pubs, Camra Books, 2007
Wetherspoons website https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/
All photos are by Dermot Kennedy except where stated.
The aeroplane atop The Comet at Hatfield is definitely not a De Haviland Comet which had 4 jet engines at the wing roots. It looks more like a Rapide or similar.
Hi David, the pub was built in 1936 before the Comet airliner was designed so I had a check on Wikipedia. There was an earlier De Havilland Comet, the DH.88, which was designed in the early 1930s and I think the statue is based on this one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH.88_Comet
Hi!
I’ve just come across your great site via this third post re Art Deco pubs (and cinemas). I’ll be coming back quite regularly.
Having been born, raised and initiated into pub life in Great Yarmouth it was nice to see some of Billy Ecclestone’s pubs featured.
I have a simple blog in which I record some of the multitude of bygone boozers that exist in the country. You might be interested in looking at the following posts:
https://www.bygoneboozers.co.uk/post/lost-pubs-from-a-lost-youth
https://www.bygoneboozers.co.uk/post/ding-ding-move-along-the-bus-please-11
https://www.bygoneboozers.co.uk/post/delightfully-deco-lamentably-lost
There’s also a great Art Deco cinema converted into a pub – The Peter Cushing – in Whitstable. Wetherspoon’s of course. I believe that it’s been closed for a bit recently but is due to reopen this coming weekend.
Regards,
Stew. Marsh
P.S. I’ve added
Hi Stew, thanks for this. I enjoyed your posts about the Lacons art deco pubs in and around Yarmouth and wish I’d seen them before I wrote my blog post about them. What a shame about pubs like the Links and the Old Commodore (which I mentioned briefly in my seaside post) but good to see that the Clipper Schooner still looks the same. Fingers crossed for the Iron Duke but I don’t hold out much hope. I think Billy Ecclestone was the most prolific art deco pub architect and the only one to be still building them in the 1950s. I must read the rest of your posts about bygone boozers from around the country.
Cheers, Dermot
Hi Dermot.
What I meant to say in the P.S., before I hit the wrong key, was that I’ve put a link from my blog to your site as all three of my readers might be interested.
With regards to Ecclestone, I wonder if is fingerprints were on this little bit of trickery:
https://www.bygoneboozers.co.uk/post/things-are-not-always-what-they-seem
Stew.