The Painters Arms

The Painters Arms is a public house located on Hightown Road in Luton, rebuilt in 1913. The building features green glazed bricks on the ground floor and red brick above, with ridge and end stacks. It occupies a corner site with entrances on both frontages and has a central servery surrounded by four (formerly five) bars.

The exterior is two stories high, with five bays facing Hightown Road, three bays on Havelock Road, and a canted bay at the corner. The ground floor is faced with glazed brick arranged in horizontal rusticated bands. The entrances are located on the left and in the center of the Hightown Road facade. The first floor has horned sash windows with decorative painted lintels and simple aprons, along with a dentilled cornice and a low plain parapet that is raised and embellished at the corner. Above the corner, there is embossed lettering stating 'Rebuilt AD 1913'.

Inside, the pub retains much of its early 20th-century layout and furnishings. There is a small central entrance lobby with a patterned tile floor leading to three bars. The central bar is small and is labeled 'Jug Bar' in etched glass on its door. Wooden screenwork with Art Nouveau-style glazing separates the bars. The public bar on the right features original fixed seating with bare timber backs. To the left, there is another lobby with a tiled floor, an early 20th-century bar counter and back, and a counter with a superstructure on twinned columns, topped with glazed lunettes that echo the pattern of the screenwork. The walls are adorned with a tiled dado and a frieze in brown and green featuring fern and scallop shell designs. Several contemporary fireplaces are present, one decorated with pictorial green tiles. The doors have etched glass and quality brass fittings, and there is a plaster modillion cornice at the front.

The Painters Arms is an early 20th-century public house notable for its distinctive exterior detailing and a largely intact compartmentalized plan that includes a cohesive collection of contemporary screenwork, bar counter and back, decorative tiling, doors, and fireplaces, all of high quality.