The Golden Ball Public House

The Golden Ball Public House

This is a public house dating from the early 19th century, with an extension added in 1883 and a comprehensive remodelling of both exterior and interior in 1929 carried out by Bertram Wilson, in-house architect to the brewers John Smith's of Tadcaster. The building is constructed of glazed facing brick and rendered brick with a slate roof and brick chimney stack.

The building occupies a corner site on Cromwell Road and Victor Street. The plan comprises a single entrance on Cromwell Road leading into a small lobby, which opens into a short corridor meeting a narrow internal corridor at right angles. From this corridor access is gained to the smoke room on the left and the public bar on the right. A servery opens onto the public bar, with a bar-side seating alcove known as the 'hall' and a small out-sales room in the north corner with its own separate entrance also on Cromwell Road. Cellar steps are located to the rear of the servery.

The building is two storeys with cellars. The Cromwell Road elevation comprises four ground-floor bays and abuts a neighbouring house at No. 2, with a gable at the right end. The Victor Street elevation has three ground-floor bays, with the left bay having a higher eaves level as part of the 1883 extension which continues along Cromwell Road. Brown glazed facing brick forms the ground-floor of both street elevations, with a tiled fascia frieze between ground and first floors, and cream painted render above.

On the Cromwell Road elevation, there are doorways in each of the two outer bays. Both have three-panelled doors with segmental heads and overlights. Relief signage in the frieze identifies the left doorway as ENTRANCE and the right doorway as JUG & BOTTLE DEPT. Between these doorways are two four-light casement windows. The lower left light of the window in bay 2 has etched glass inscribed THE GOLDEN BALL INN, and the frieze above the windows bears relief lettering reading THE GOLDEN BALL. The first floor has two two-over-two pane hung-sash windows with projecting sills and segmental heads. A dog-tooth brick eaves cornice runs along the elevation and continues on the adjoining 1883 house.

The Victor Street elevation has three casement windows on the ground floor. The lower right light of the window in bay 1 and the lower left light of the window in bay 3 display geometric and foliate etched glass, while the window in bay 2 has etched glass in both lower lights—the left inscribed JOHN SMITH'S and the right inscribed MAGNET ALES. The frieze bears relief signage reading JOHN SMITH'S TADCASTER ALES & STOUTS. The first floor has a single two-over-two pane hung-sash window in bay 1.

The interior retains many fixtures and fittings from the 1929 scheme. These include doors and architraves to the inner lobby, public bar, smoke room and cellar, all with three vertical panels and glazed upper lights. The entrance lobby, public bar counter front and adjoining walls, and out-sales room are lined with glazed cream tilework to dado level, decorated with ribbon bands of black and orange tiles and geometric square tiles, topped with a coping band of brown rectangular tiles. The 'hall' alcove has terrazzo flooring. The servery features hinged counters, glazed sashed screenwork to the sides over the 'hall' counter and out-sales, and back-fitting to the rear. Fixed seating survives in both main rooms and the 'hall' alcove, with a bell-push rail in the smoke room. The public bar has a timber fire surround, picture rail and simple moulded cornice. The 'hall' alcove retains sashed borrowed lights into the entrance and internal corridors, and a moulded cornice. The entrance corridor also features moulded cornices. The smoke room fireplace is a modern reproduction, and some glazed openings into the internal corridor are more recent additions. Glazed screenwork above the public bar counter is also of more recent date.

Historically, the original pub comprised the lower-roofed section on Victor Street, formerly known as St Mary's Row, with its entrance at that location. Cromwell Road only took its present form after 1878 when the demolition of the old City Gaol released land for street widening and redevelopment. In 1883 William Flint, the publican at that time, employed local architects Benson & Minks to design a new corner addition to the pub together with an adjoining new dwelling house at No. 2 Cromwell Road. The corner addition was intended to increase the publican's private living space, while the pub interior remained largely confined to the original Victor Street elevation. In 1884 The Golden Ball was sold to Benjamin Braime of Braime's Brewery, Tadcaster. A Chief Constable's report from 1902 mentioned a smoke room, vaults, and a large club room at the bottom of the back yard used as a 'brass room', a once-popular pub game similar to quoits. In 1902 John Smith's of Tadcaster acquired the pub when they took over Braime's Brewery. In 1929 Bertram Wilson remodelled The Golden Ball, a scheme that involved enlarging the pub premises by removing the publican's private accommodation in the Cromwell Road corner building to make way for new facilities including off-sales, a new entrance and an additional drinking area in the form of the bar-side 'hall' alcove. The old Victor Street entrance was abandoned, the public bar was enlarged, and the ceilings of both the public bar and smoke room were heightened.