Horse and Jockey

Horse and Jockey

Public house, formerly hotel, built in 1899 by the architects Wood and Kendrick for Mitchells and Butlers.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings, now painted, and has tiled roofs and brick chimneystacks. It stands on a corner plot at the junction of Wood Green Road and Hobs Road. The plan is irregular and roughly L-shaped, with extensions to the south and west. A small ancillary block containing a stable and wagon house stands to the north.

The building is two storeys with an attic, dropping to two storeys on the northern wing, with one and two-storey extensions on the west elevations. Built in the Domestic Revival style, it is articulated vertically and laterally by regular window bays and string courses, with projecting bays and gables creating varied and lively composition.

The principal road-side elevations face north-east and south-east, meeting at the junction with an octagonal tower. The south-east façade has two recessed bays beneath a half-timbered gabled dormer at its centre. On the ground floor is a blocked doorway, converted to a window, set within a moulded architrave with long consoles holding a shaped pediment with disc, scroll and foliate motifs. To the left is a tripartite window with pilaster-like mullions and a semi-circular moulding above. Ground-floor windows are casements with leaded over-lights. Further left is a double-height projection containing a doorway with a double door of fielded panelling. Window openings across the main range are linked by a moulded sill band and a wide stone impost band with cornice. First-floor windows have segmental arched heads of gauged brick and are sashes with a single light to the lower section and multiple panes above. They have a dressed sill band and moulded brick impost band. The projecting entrance bay has corbelled angle rounds with acorn finials and a shaped parapet.

The octagonal corner tower is three storeys, with window openings to each face on the ground and first floors consistent with the main elevations. The third floor has Renaissance-arched openings with dressed stone detailing, recessed panels of moulded brick below, and plain parapet above. The roof is presumed to have originally been pyramidal.

The north-east elevation has consistent detailing with a central entrance projection. To the right is a lower gabled section with three windows on the ground floor and a tripartite window above. The gable has applied half-timbering. The roofs of the main range are intersecting pitched ranges with cresting tiles, and chimney stacks with moulded brick detailing rise from each ridge.

A wall continues the building line to the right, containing a semi-circular arched pedestrian doorway into a courtyard and a gateway with deep square gate piers with pyramidal caps. Between these openings is a recessed brick panel filled with mosaic tiles, now painted over.

The rear of the building has been extended, obscuring the original structure at ground-floor level, though the general form remains apparent above where the two parallel gabled main ranges meet the lower opposing rear range. At the westernmost angle of the original building is a canted window bay with dressed stone sills and chamfered lintels. It contains fixed-light timber casements with tilting over-lights of textured glass and a pair of sashes above, detailed similarly to the principal elevations. One first-floor window has Art Nouveau-style leaded glazing. The south-west angle of the roof has a wide dormer with a lead-clad roof featuring a central barrel vault.

Interior features are highly developed. The pub has two bar rooms, the principal of which occupies the south-eastern range. The bar counter bows outward towards the top and is clad in rows of ceramic tiles with a relief-moulded Art Nouveau-style course at the top, an ochre scoop-patterned course below, and pink tiles forming a panelled plinth. Russet-coloured roll-moulded tiles frame the horizontal courses, and pilasters with gargoyles, foliage and bows provide vertical articulation. The south end has been truncated.

The bar back is a six-bay timber arcade with an off-centre clock. Recessed shelving units have moulded uprights with free classical detailing and are lined with mirrors, some with etched palmettes. Those in the arches are inscribed with product names. Above, the timber is panelled with various scroll and foliate moulding and cresting along the top. At the curved east end of the bar is a hatch into the former off-sales lobby with a sash window of etched glass. Picture rail and moulded cornice are present, along with the remains of two timber screen partitions with leaded glazing in their upper halves, possibly related to an earlier partition forming two bar rooms.

The north-east lobby originally provided entrance to the main bar, off-sales lobby and stair hall. Joinery survives in the lobby with an etched glass over-light and moulded cornice. The hall beyond has an encaustic tiled floor, and the stair has wide turned spindles.

The small detached building to the north is likely a former stable and wagon house. A brick wall links it to the main building and forms a courtyard between them, with separate pedestrian and vehicle gateways. The north-east gable end is blind on the ground floor with an inserted opening above. The opposing gable stands on an oblique angle, in line with the original south-west elevation of the pub. The land rises on this side and there is a carriageway entrance at first-floor level. The north-west elevation is blank, and the south-west, within the courtyard, has various inserted openings. The roof is pitched with cresting tiles along the ridge.