The Royal George

The Royal George is a public house with a staff flat above, built between 1939 and 1940. Designed by AE Sewell, architect to Truman, Hanbury and Buxton brewers, it replaced a pub of the same name in Drummond Street. The building is constructed of stock brick with artificial stone bands to the ground floor and attic, topped with a green slate roof and rear stacks.

The building has three storeys and cellars, set on a rectangular plot with curved corners. There are corner entrances leading to the former north (public) and south (saloon) bars, and a central entrance to the former private bar. A band of six two-light sash windows flanks the central entrance. The first floor has large two-light casements set within stone heads, with four in the centre and one on each corner. Similar casements are found in the attic, set back under projecting eaves, with recessed corners dominated by relief sculptures of eagles. A further access point to the upper flat is located in Wellesley Road, with a matching door positioned beneath a tripartite first-floor window with stone jambs.

The interior originally comprised a public bar at one end, a saloon bar at the other, a private bar in the centre, and a games room at the rear, now a food counter. The bars have been combined, but the central counter remains. The interior surfaces, including the back bar, walls, and supporting columns up to the frieze, are clad with veneer panelling typical of the late 1930s, with banded decoration to the bar and fitted seats to the former lounge area, all made from the same timber. The chimney pieces are particularly elaborate, featuring marquetry decoration; the public bar’s chimney piece contrasts imagery of the 1830s steam age with the radios and cocktails of the 1930s. The lounge bar’s marquetry panel depicts the sailing ship The Royal George. Banded coving is above the bar fascia and cornices, and inset roundels in the ceiling accommodate later 20th-century light fittings.

The building is listed as a remarkably complete example of a 1930s public house, notable for its excellent marquetry panels depicting period features with a distinctive charm and style.