The Queen Bess public house

The Queen Bess public house

A post-war public house completed in 1959, designed by architects Wilburn and Son of Doncaster for the Samuel Smith brewery in Tadcaster.

The building is constructed of brick with a plain tile roof. It follows an irregular T-shaped plan, with the main frontage range to the north and a rear range to the south, aligned north-south.

The main public house range is two storeys and five bays, arranged 1:3:1, with the central five bays beneath a hipped roof and the two outermost bays beneath lower hipped roof sections. Two tall brick chimneys rise from the rear of the roof at each end of the frontage range. The entrance front faces north and is symmetrical. At its centre is a single-storey, three-bay advanced entrance porch beneath a hipped roof. This gives access to the ground-floor bar areas, the former off-sales department, and the staircase to the upper-floor accommodation. A small semi-circular window with glazing bars fronts the off-sales area. On each side of the porch are two doorways: those to the left lead to the saloon bar and the staircase to the first floor, while those to the right lead to the public bar and the off-sales area.

Flanking the entrance porch are two single, tall, three-light windows with concrete mullions and surrounds, each light with upper and lower transoms. Five evenly-spaced upper-floor windows of two and three lights are arranged above. The east and west return elevations are similarly detailed, each with two three-light windows lighting the bar areas.

To the rear of the frontage range, slightly off-centre, is a tall single-storey four-bay range aligned north-south. This was a purpose-built concert room connected to the front range and entered by a projecting double doorway and lobby area to the south-east corner of the front range. The concert room has a hipped roof and is lit by windows on three sides; the north side connects to the entrance range by a servery. A double doorway opens from the south-west corner. Single-storey toilet blocks extend from the east and west sides of the complex.

The interior remains largely as originally designed, with three distinctive bar areas. The public bar, known as 'The Tap' – a reference to the discharging of a blast furnace – retains a timber bar counter and canopy with large studded decoration and a mirrored back bar. Original fixed bench seating and a rear-wall fireplace survive. The lounge bar has a curved bar front made up of horizontal timber strips with horizontal bands across them, reminiscent of barrel staves and bands. The deep canopy is angled rather than curved, made up of light-coloured timber strips and bands incorporating ventilation grilles. Fixed bench seating lines the north and east walls. The third bar, now accessed from the same central servery area as the other bars and the former off-sales area, is located at the northern end of the concert room. The long bar counter is set in a recess formed by the entrance lobby on the west side and has an inward sloping counter front faced with fluted vertical timber boarding, as are the flanking wall corners. The original back bar survives but has been altered to accommodate a later doorway into the main servery area. Above and across the bar recess is a deep timber fascia with 'QUEENS BAR' in applied lettering. The concert room has lost its raised stage area but retains fixed bench seating on its east and west sides.

Alongside the bar counters, canopies and back bar structures, the building retains a high percentage of its original external and internal doors and other joinery items. The former off-sales area, no longer in use, retains its vertically-boarded servery counter, canopy and shelving. In the Queens Bar, a fixed wall plaque reads 'This plaque cast in iron from Queen Bess furnace commemorates the opening of her namesake the Queen Bess Hotel'.