The Slug And Lettuce Public House And Number 330 Upper Street

THE SLUG AND LETTUCE PUBLIC HOUSE AND NUMBER 330 UPPER STREET, ISLINGTON GREEN

A public house and adjoining shop building in Islington, formerly known as The Fox. The structure comprises the public house at No. 1 Islington Green and a shop (now a restaurant) with flats or offices above at No. 330 Upper Street. The building dates from the mid to late 19th century with substantial late 19th and 20th century alterations, particularly to the ground floor.

The exterior is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with painted stucco on the Islington Green elevation, and covered with Welsh slate roofs. The building rises four storeys over a basement, with a seven-window range facing Upper Street and a four-window range facing Islington Green, the corner formed by a curved wall. No. 330 Upper Street has been given a 20th-century ground floor treatment, whilst No. 1 Islington Green retains its late 19th and early 20th-century public house frontage, featuring two entrances from Upper Street and two from Islington Green (though the public bar entrance on Islington Green has been altered to a window), plus one at the corner. The entrances are flanked by pilasters of grey and pink polished granite and stucco, now painted. Most entrances are flat-arched, except for the corner entrance which is round-arched with a moulded stucco archivolt, keystone and foliage decoration to the spandrels. The pub entrances retain their original doorcases with sidelights; the house entrance on Islington Green preserves a panelled door of original design, and the corner entrance has an original panelled door with modern glazing.

The original windows between the entrances are flat-arched with decorative glazing-bars forming two segmental arches, with early 20th-century tiled panels below. Upper windows are all flat-arched with moulded stucco architraves; those on the first floor carry segmental pediments on No. 330 Upper Street and corniced heads on the second floor. The second window from the corner in Islington Green is blank. Rusticated pilaster strips divide No. 330 Upper Street from No. 1 Islington Green, separate the northernmost bay of Islington Green, and flank the blank curved corner. Sill bands run across both floors, and a moulded stucco cornice with blocking course crowns the building. A flat-arched dormer breaks the mansard roof. A clock is set within a curved panel at the corner, framed by eared architraves, scrolled consoles and a segmental pediment. Chimney stacks rise from party walls and the parapet on both facades of No. 1 Islington Green, panelled with consoles and cornices.

The interior bars are largely open-plan but retain an arcaded partition of three bays, dating from circa 1900 and possibly original, which divides the bar facing Islington Green from the remainder. Tongue and groove panelling appears at the north and south ends of the bar. The late 19th-century bar-front is partly altered, whilst the late 19th-century bar back features an arcaded superstructure carried on partly fluted Corinthian columns, now lacking decorative mirror glass. The ceiling is finished in Lincrusta. The staircase at the north end has a panelled dado and underside, with panelled newel posts and turned balusters. An upstairs front room features pedimented architraves to the doors, Lincrusta paper to the dado, frieze and ceiling, and a marble corner fireplace with cast-iron grate and transfer-printed tiles, all dating from circa 1900.