No. 21 John Street, The Duke Of York Public House On Roger Street, And Nos. 1-4 Mytre Court On John Mews

Offices, flats and the Duke of York Public House, designed in 1937 by Denis Edmund Harrington and completed by 1938, with minor later alterations.

This complex occupies the northernmost end of the block bounded by John Street, Roger Street and John Mews in Holborn. The scheme combines a steel-framed office building, a public house, a restaurant and a block of flats.

EXTERIOR

At the corner of John Street and Roger Street stands an eight-storey office block. The ground and first floors are faced in artificial stone, with red brick above and metal casement windows throughout. The third floor is accentuated by continuous stone banding that forms sill and lintel to the windows, which are separated by panels of fluted brickwork. The set-back top storey features banded rustication in the brickwork between the windows and an artificial stone cornice. The set-back is particularly deep on the John Street elevation, where the cornice forms a projecting canopy inset with glass blocks. The offices are entered from John Street through an original glazed hardwood door flanked by two tall engaged pylons with sculpted tops, each depicting a woman in the stylised fashion of the 1930s and reminiscent of Eric Gill's work.

Halfway along Roger Street, the building height reduces to three storeys, with elevations treated consistently: artificial stone to the ground and first floors, brick to the third floor. On the canted corner between Roger Street and John Mews is the entrance to the Duke of York public house, which occupies the ground floor. A restaurant with separate entrance is located further along John Mews. The pub windows retain marginal glazing bars and painted lettering reading IND COOPE. The pub's double entrance doors are original, as is the restaurant door with its surround of end-on laid tiles.

Facing John Mews is a four-storey block of flats with a symmetrical frontage. Curved brick balconies with concrete bases and coping flank a canted bay window. The ground floor displays banded brick rustication and a central door beneath a concrete canopy. The flat roof is bounded by iron railings.

INTERIOR

In the offices, the entrance lobby features fluted pilasters, a slender decorative frieze and a coved cornice to the ceiling with stepped shallow mouldings. The main stair wraps around a central lift shaft with terrazzo treads and skirting, now largely covered by carpet; the lift is modern. Room arrangements vary by floor, with some open plan and some partitioned offices, but all recent fittings and finishes. Original fire escape stairs and doors survive.

The public house retains a strong period character with most of its fabric likely original. A floor plan published with the architects' designs shows two main rooms—the Saloon Bar (now the restaurant) and Public Bar (now the main bar)—with a small Private Bar partitioned between them. A now-blocked door in the main bar indicates where the Private Bar originally stood. The current bar counter arrangement differs from the published design; fabric evidence suggests a different configuration was created during fitting-out, possibly under the first landlord's direction. The jazzy pink, white and black-patterned lino follows the profile of the current bar counter in both rooms and appears original to the building. The joinery of the bar counter and bar front is consistent with a 1930s date. Booths and panelling in the saloon bar, executed in stained timber with darker raised bands, appear to be original, forming a coherent purpose-fitted ensemble. One partition features a fluted glass transom. The saloon bar retains an original fireplace with brick surround and timber mantelpiece, shown on the architects' plan. The booths in the public bar are known to be late 20th-century sympathetic additions, but the panelling matches that in the saloon bar and may be original. Fabric evidence strongly suggests the current fixtures and fittings are original to the building.

The interiors of the flats were not inspected.

HISTORY

The building was constructed speculatively. Among the first office tenants was Linotype & Machinery Ltd, a printing engineering company, visible on a 1950s photograph; a 1946 directory also lists a chartered surveyors and trade association. The first landlord of the Duke was Hyman Lipman.

Denis Edmund Harrington became an Associate of the RIBA in 1928 and a Fellow from 1941. He studied at the School of Architecture, Northern Polytechnic in London, served as assistant to Mewes and Davis for two years, and was Chief Assistant at TP Bennett and Sons for nine years. Both were major early 20th-century commercial practices—Mewes and Davis designed the Ritz Hotel in London, while Bennett and Sons were renowned for sleek Moderne blocks of mansion flats. Harrington established his own practice in December 1936, and Mytre House was one of his first independent commissions. After the Second World War, he continued to design mainly offices and flats, and was architect of the rebuilt Painters Hall for the Painter Stainers Company at Little Trinity Lane, City of London in 1961.