The Gatehouse public house

The Gatehouse Public House

The Gatehouse is an inter-war public house completed in 1934, situated close to a major junction on Norwich's outer ring road. The building's design combines an eclectic mixture of Arts and Crafts, neo-Tudor and local vernacular detailing. Its architect has not yet been identified.

Construction and Materials

The building is constructed of red brick with ashlar stone dressings and a plain tile roof. External decorative features include chequer work in knapped flint and render, and the irregular placement of vitrified bricks for decorative effect.

Plan and Setting

The building occupies an irregular T-shaped plan, its original form slightly obscured by a 20th-century rear extension. It sits on a sloping site with land falling away to the north and south-west. The principal (south) elevation is aligned east-west and set back from Dereham Road.

Exterior

At the west end of the site stands a two-storey range with a curved, tower-like frontage. The upper floor is decorated with knapped flint and render chequer work. Each level has three windows: those to the upper floor are two-light leaded casements, while those below are taller leaded cross windows. A tall, externally-expressed chimney stack of tiered profile rises at the right-hand side of the curved walling.

The west-end elevation incorporates a doorway with a massive ashlar surround beneath a gable containing a heraldic crest and flanking finials. To the left of the doorway are three two-storey bays, with the central bay recessed and the outer bays featuring gablets. The recessed bay has upper-floor chequer work, and at its base is a crenellated single-storey projection. Further left is a much plainer two-storey range with replacement window frames, thought to be the accommodation for the manager or tenant.

The remaining south elevation consists of a long single-storey range set back from the curved front wall, featuring a tall, steeply-pitched roof and a single tiered ridge chimney stack. At the junction of the two ranges is a second small crenellated ground-floor structure extending from the base of the adjacent chimney stack. Further right is a wide ashlar six-light mullion and transom window with pointed-head lights. Above is a low five-light mullioned window set beneath a small gable containing a datestone inscribed 1934. Towards the centre of the range is a single-storey porch with a hipped roof and a central half-glazed door with small flanking windows; this porch was added in the 1970s, with the door and windows re-set from their original position on the front elevation. Beyond the porch is a further four-light casement window, and at the east end a canted bay window is set beneath a shallow hipped projection within the main hipped end of the roof. Windows throughout the principal elevations incorporate leaded glazing.

Interior

The interior is divided into three distinct compartments: a long central public bar, a saloon bar at the west end and a smoke room at the east end, with toilets to the rear.

The porch provides access to what were originally two external doors, as shown in a 1939 photograph. The left-hand door opens into the public bar, which retains a contemporary bar counter with panelled frontage and back bar structure. At its east end, the main counter terminates at a small servery set at right angles, facing into the bar room. The counter is believed to have originally formed part of an off-sales compartment, since lost due to 1970s alterations. The public bar has fixed seating against the south wall and a high ceiling imitating an open roof space, with applied timbers mimicking roof members. The upper area of this 'roof' space is lit by the gable window set above the mullion and transom window that illuminates the lower bar area. At the east end of the bar is a brick fireplace set below a panelled overmantle. The mullion and transom window incorporates decorative stained glass in the form of six roundels depicting objects or figures in medieval or Tudor style.

The bar room at the east end has three-quarter height panelling and a narrow decorative plaster frieze with depictions of hops, flowers and leaves, interrupted by diagonal floral lozenges. The frieze extends into the public bar above the back bar shelving and into the saloon bar at the west end, originally entered from the elaborate entrance in the west end wall. The saloon bar has three-quarter height panelling and a Tudor-style fireplace in a panelled surround set within a curved wall. A redundant servery recess on the north wall is thought to be the surviving section of the saloon bar counter, modified when toilets were created at the west end in the 1970s.

The Gatehouse retains a significant proportion of its original interior fittings, including bar and back bar structures, door and window joinery, stained glass and wall panelling. Despite minor internal alterations, the surviving fixtures and fittings provide a clear indication of the different decorative finishes used to distinguish the status of the various bar rooms within a public house of this period.