Jack Straws Castle Public House

The Jack Straw's Castle Public House, built in 1962-64 by Raymond Erith and constructed by GE Wallis and Sons, stands on the site of a previous public house of the same name. It is timber-framed, resting on a brick plinth and clad in painted weatherboarding, with tiled double hipped roofs. The design is in the style of an 18th-century coaching inn.

The building features an open-sided courtyard plan, with a single-storey staff accommodation block and garages forming the south wing. The long principal elevation is three storeys high with cellars. The upper floors have continuous ranges of 20 sash windows each; the second floor incorporating pointed Gothick lights. The ground floor includes a vehicle entrance to the courtyard, sash windows, and four canted bay windows. A pair of windows flank the entrance, with an overlight and sash to the right and sidelights to the left. A single window to the right-hand bay indicates the location of an interior stair. A projecting bracketed cornice and a wooden crenellated parapet top the facade.

The north return has a single-storey entrance projection and a four-storey tower containing a lift. A similar tower is located at the south-west corner of the courtyard, housing water tanks. A single-storey projection, facing into the courtyard and attached to the west facade of the north wing, has an ogee arch with finials framing a panelled niche with a fitted bench seat. The rear elevation mirrors the principal elevation in fenestration on the upper floors, but features a pantiled gallery on the ground floor and a continuous cast-iron balcony with a tented hood on the second floor.

The interior reveals exposed Douglas fir stanchions and beams bolted at angles with iron plates. The ground floor bar features continuous tongue and groove pine panelling and fireplaces at either end and to the side bar, each bearing Raymond Erith’s initials in the grate. A dog-leg stair with a panelled dado, square newels, a closed string, and fretwork balusters leads to a function room, restaurant, and tower bar, all with panelling. The second-floor restaurant features high, fixed leather-upholstered benches and tables, while the adjoining tower bar includes a bar counter and fixed pine seating, all representing elements of Erith's design concept.

The current building replaced an early 18th-century public house, altered in the early 19th century and damaged by bombing during the Second World War. The name commemorates Jack Straw, Wat Tyler’s second-in-command during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, who is said to have had a camp on the site.