Green Dragon Public House

GREEN DRAGON PUBLIC HOUSE

Public house, originally probably a shop. Substantially mid-15th century with later alterations. Timber-framed with flint and brick. Plain tiled roofs. Standard town hall-house plan.

The building forms a gabled 2-storey range with dormer attic running parallel to the street, with a jettied upper floor. Return walls are also jettied, though the southern one has been rebuilt without its jetty. A 2-storey cross wing with dormer attic extends to the rear, almost the full width of the building, jettied on both sides and to the rear. A mid-19th century brick 2-storey wing abuts the rear of this cross wing, continuing the building line and absorbing the rear jetty, which survives internally.

The street facade features a pointed-arched doorway to the left with a studded plank door. To its right are three pointed arches and a fourth in the east return, formerly the open arcade of a shop with moulded jambs, now glazed. To the left of the door is a 4-light hollow and roll-moulded mullioned window with renewed leaded glazing. Above the jetty—supported by knuckle braces to the left and an arch-braced corner post to the right—is a bowtell and casement cornice. The upper floor is close-studded with geometric plaster decoration. Two 4-light windows occupy this level, the left-hand one with a King mullion. The gabled roof carries one gabled dormer with cusped bargeboards.

A 20th-century rebuilt internal gable end stack serves an inserted fireplace in the north wall of the east room, with the flue corbelled out under the east return jetty. The east side of the cross wing is close-studded above a 10-light mullioned window with a King mullion and ovolo mouldings. Under the eaves sits a 6-light mullioned window, also with a King mullion, exhibiting roll and fillet mouldings. The gabled roof carries a gabled tower dormer with a 2-light casement and a partly external north gable end stack.

The west side of the cross wing has a door to the right, leading directly into the former hall, and a 4-light mullioned window to the left with three opening 18th-century iron casements. Mortice holes indicate this was formerly a 6-light mullioned window with a hood and projecting sill—a shallow oriel, probably the dais window. The north wall of the cross wing was rebuilt in the late 18th century in flint, as was the west gable of the front range.

The rear wing dates to the late 18th century and is constructed of brick with a corrugated tile roof. It comprises 2 storeys with an irregular bay system, various windows and two doorways to the ground floor, and three sashes with glazing bars to the first floor. A gabled roof completes this section.

Interior

The original plan remains virtually intact, compromised only by timber partitions said to date from the 1930s. The front door leads to a passage serving the hall in the rear cross wing. On the left of the passage is a 4-centred doorway; at the end is another, opening into the hall itself. To the right is an inserted door leading into the present lounge bar, formerly the shop area with the open arcade. This room has an inserted fireplace in the east wall, a plain central bridging beam, and a prominent dragon beam. A 4-centred door connects this room to the original hall at the rear, adjacent to the passage door.

The hall, now the back parlour, features a wide rebuilt fireplace occupying the north wall with a 20th-century mantelpiece supported on three grotesque corbels of 20th-century origin but medieval inspiration. To its left is a cupboard, formerly the site of the winder to the solar. To its right is a stone hollow-chamfered arched doorway leading to the 15th-century exterior. The wall plate above the fireplace, that on the south side of the hall opposite, and the bridging beam between them have crenellated decorations defining the original extent of the room, disappearing here and there behind the 20th-century partitions.

First-floor details are largely removed, though one blocked 4-centred doorway survives, along with chamfered bridging beams and some jowled principal studs. The roof of the front range has renewed butt purlins, overlaid. The cross wing roof was rebuilt with clasped purlins and collars. The interior of the brick 18th-century rear wing retains the north jetty to the rear of the hall.