Cross Keys Public House and Raised Forecourt

The Cross Keys public house and its raised forecourt, rebuilt in 1894 by W.M. Boden, stand on a prominent street corner. The forecourt is likely older than the public house itself. The building is constructed of stone-dressed red Ruabon brick, pebbledash, grey slates, and red sandstone squared snecked rubble, in a Free style.

The front to Duke Street features a round-arched recessed porch at the western corner with Bridge Place. The porch has columns with foliar capitals in a 13th-century manner, crossed keys incised in the spandrel, and a stone-banded corner buttress. The porch floor is tiled with mosaic, and the entrance has a part-glazed oak door panelled in a 17th-century style. There are two 3-light mullioned and transomed windows, with leaded glass above the transoms; a blocked doorway; a 2-light casement; and a 4-panel door with overlight in the east wing. Stone lintels and segmental brick arches finish the window openings. The second storey’s main block features a moulded stone jetty with carved end-consoles and pebbledash, above which is a shallow canted oriel of four lights with two transoms and a cross-casement with a frame projecting from the wall. The east wing has a cross-window. The third storey has a moulded stone jetty between stone-banded projections, a 4-light casement, a pilaster, and a 2-light casement, each under a dormer gable with moulded bargeboards; the east wing has a pair of cross-casements under a timber-framed dormer gable. A red brick ridge chimney is also present.

The west face to Bridge Place has floor bands, banded quoins, window surrounds, and mullions and transoms of yellow stone. The first storey has a 1-light transomed window on each side of a leaded cross-window in the gable-end of the main block, a half-bay window on the south return of the gable-end, and a pair of cross-casements with brick mullions and stone transoms in the south wing. The second storey has a slightly jettied floorband and a 5-light leaded casement in the gable-end, and a timber cross-casement in the south wing. The third storey has a flush floorband and a 4-light mullioned casement in the gable and a hipped 2-light dormer in the roof of the south wing. There is also a ridge chimney and a south gable chimney.

The raised forecourt to Bridge Place has west and south walls of squared snecked red sandstone rubble, with double boarded doors to the beer cellar in an opening with a segmental arch, appearing older than the public house. One step leads up to the blue brick pavement of the forecourt.

The interior has undergone alterations but retains some original features. The building makes a positive contribution to the townscape.