The Castle Public House

The Castle Public House is located on Cowcross Street, Islington, with sections extending to Turnmill Street. Built in 1865, it was designed by H. Dawson. The building comprises a public house at numbers 34 and 35, flanked by former industrial or commercial buildings. It is constructed of yellow brick in Flemish bond, with stucco and possibly also stone, and has a visible roof of artificial slate.

The building is four and five storeys high, with a basement, and has a thirteen-window range. The five-window pub section subtly projects between two symmetrical wings; the entire front is curved in plan, with the outer bays also projecting. The wings are largely matching, except that the exterior of numbers 32 and 33 Cowcross Street has been plastered over. The ground floor of numbers 101 and 102 Turnmill Street is stuccoed, featuring a flat-arched entrance to the right with a segmental-arched overlight, set within a rusticated surround. The three other openings, slightly altered, feature segmental stilted arches with faceted keystones and paterae in the spandrels. A moulded stucco cornice runs along the facade. Outer windows on each floor are round-arched; the remaining windows are flat-arched to the first floor, and segmental-arched above with keystones and alternating stone and brick voussoirs. A roundel featuring a cock in low relief sits below the outer second-floor window. A stucco cornice and blocking course complete the upper facade.

The pub’s ground-floor frontage is stuccoed (or possibly stone), with a deep base and paired pilasters linked by blocks, a fascia and cornice above. Between these elements, the pub front has a central entrance flanked by two flat-arched windows of unequal width on either side. Slim, fluted columns are positioned between the entrance and windows, and pairs of similar columns exist between the windows. Upper windows are segmental-arched on the first floor and round-arched on the second and third floors, with sill bands to the first and second floors. A bracketed cornice runs at sill level to the third floor. A group of three central windows features a broad stucco architrave, archivolts, and a shallow arcaded, bracketed balcony to the central window on the second floor, topped by a deep bracketed cornice. Three round-arched dormers with metal finials rise from the parapet.

Original interior features are limited to the decorative treatment of the stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, and possibly the ceiling paper. A pawnbroker’s sign is displayed on the exterior. Historically, George IV granted the landlord of the establishment a pawnbroker's license in recognition of a loan against his pocket-watch to settle gambling debts incurred at a Clerkenwell cockfight; this license remains valid.