The Duke William

The Duke William is a pub built around 1929 in Neo-Tudor style. The architect is unknown, and the building has undergone later alterations.

Materials and Construction

The ground floor is constructed of brick laid in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings. The upper two levels are rendered and feature vertical and horizontal half-timbering. Decorative areas of framing appear beneath the oriel windows and to either side of the first-floor windows. The building has brick chimney stacks and a plain clay tile roof. Throughout, timber casement windows are fitted with leaded lights and some stained and textured glass panels.

Layout

The pub occupies a corner plot orientated south-east to north-west with a roughly square footprint. The St John's Square frontage (to the north-east) has a central entrance lobby. Immediately to the right of the lobby is the off-sales area, which now provides access to the L-shaped public bar occupying the north-east corner. This bar is served by the north-east part of the central island servery. The room at the south-east corner appears to have been the saloon lounge, and the room at the south-west corner was probably the smoke room. Both rooms are separated from the central servery by a dogleg passageway connecting the St John's Square lobby and the Newcastle Street lobby. At the rear of the building is the staircase, and the toilets are in the north-west corner. On the first floor, the former function room (now a restaurant) extends over the public bar and saloon lounge, with the kitchen positioned above the former smoke room. The second floor contains the former landlord's flat.

Exterior

The building rises three storeys above a cellar. The principal façade faces St John's Square and is three bays wide. The central doorway is set within a stone doorcase with a four-centred arch head and an entablature supported on fluted brackets. To its right is a single-light window serving the public bar and off-sales area lobby. To either side are three-light casement windows with wider central panes. At the base of the right-hand bay is a metal cellar grille. The first floor has a four-light casement to each bay. The second floor has a two-light casement in the centre flanked by four-light oriel windows with jettied gables above. All gables have carved bargeboards decorated with Tudor roses and finials. A gable-end stack sits at the south-east end. The canted north elevation is blind as it forms a chimneystack.

The secondary façade faces Newcastle Street and comprises two bays. The left-hand bay has a three-light casement at ground and first floor levels and a three-light oriel window at second floor level with a gable above. The narrower right-hand bay contains a doorway at ground floor level (identical to that on St John's Square) and a single-light window to each upper floor. A fire escape has been added to the rear (south-west) elevation, and at ground floor level is the five-light bow window of the former smoke room.

Interior

Ground Floor

Steps from the main entrance on St John's Square lead to a terrazzo-floored lobby. Two steps lead right towards the public bar and former off-sales area, whilst a further two steps lead straight ahead towards the pub's 'smarter' rooms. The door to the public bar is no longer in use but remains in place, bearing the word 'bar' in a central glazed rectangle with a fanlight above. The public bar is now accessed through the doorway to the former off-sales area.

The off-sales area retains floor-to-ceiling partitions of timber and glazed panels with original decorative leadwork and small areas of stained glass. The original terrazzo floor survives, along with a counter screen to the servery. A panel of timber and glazed partition on the right has been removed to create a doorway into the public bar.

The L-shaped public bar is situated at the Duke William's north-east corner with windows overlooking St John's Square and Newcastle Street. The room retains its original fixed seating with heating pipes beneath, curved bar counter with fielded panels and fluted pilasters. A heating pipe, which also functions as a foot rail, continues around the base of the bar counter. The bar counter forms part of the pub's central servery, at the centre of which is an island bar back. The central part of the bar back's entablature rises up in a curve and contains a clock. At the canted north corner of the public bar is a panelled timber fireplace with a glazed, greyish-blue coloured tile inset. On the north-west side of the room, a doorway leads to the terrazzo-floored Newcastle Street lobby. This lobby has double doors with decorative glazed panels leading to the passageway.

Double doors from the St John's Square lobby (which have had their glass panels replaced) lead into a passageway with the servery immediately on the right. The servery curves and bows around the corner to the rear where it meets the Newcastle Street lobby entrance. The lower levels of the counter are panelled and designed identically to the counter in the public bar. The upper levels rise to the ceiling and have glazed screens with original leadwork. Service is now provided through open hatches, though these presumably originally contained sliding glazed counter screens. The passageway retains its original terrazzo flooring, though some areas are now carpeted.

On the left side of the passageway are the saloon lounge and the former smoke room. The doorway to the saloon lounge has been opened up, whilst the doorway to the smoke room remains although the door has been removed. The saloon lounge overlooks St John's Square and has three-quarter height panelling and fixed seating with heating pipes beneath. The section of fixed seating at the rear of this room appears to be post-war. Above the benches are bell pushes, indicating that this area had waiter service. The timber fireplace on the south-east wall has decorative lozenge-work. The insert is modern and is surrounded by blue and white tiles in the style of Delftware; this tiling is probably not original. The partition wall between the saloon lounge and the smoke room has been opened up.

The smoke room is lit by the rear bow window with decorative leadwork and stained glass. It has three-quarter height panelling and a projecting chimney breast on the south-east wall (the fireplace has been removed). On the opposite wall beneath the bow window is fixed seating with underfloor heating pipes.

Immediately to the right-hand side of the smoke room, in the passageway, is the staircase leading to the pub's upper levels. To the right of the staircase are the toilets. The gentlemen's toilets include much original work, including glazed screening, urinals, black and white floor tiles, doors and door furniture. The ladies' toilets have been modernised, but the original door survives with a glazed panel containing decorative leadwork and 'ladies' in a rectangle at its centre.

First Floor

Above the public bar and saloon lounge is the opened-up function room. This room retains its original oak floor, cross-axial ceiling beams and cornices, but the matchboard dado-height wall panelling, fixed seating and bar counter appear to be later insertions. The fireplaces have been removed. Above the smoke room, on the south-west side of the function room, is the modern kitchen. The toilets on this floor have also been modernised.

Second Floor

The second floor contains domestic accommodation. The three-panelled doors and Bakelite door handles remain in place. In the room at the south-west corner is a pair of pantry cupboards, each with sliding doors, one with a ventilation grille. There is an inter-war marble fireplace with tiled inset in the south-east room.

Cellar

The cellar has a concrete floor, a brick platform to the perimeter walls and associated drainage channels, and timber plank and panelled doors.