Worlds End Distillery Public House

World's End Distillery Public House

This public house was built in 1897 on King's Road, originally called 'The World's End'. The architect is unknown. It replaces an earlier pub on the same corner site, which stood at the convergence of King's Road and World's End Passage.

The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish Bond with rubbed and moulded brick detailing, stone dressings and banding, and granite facings to the ground floor. It is roofed in slate with lead sheet to the turret. The structure comprises three storeys, a basement and attic, with the ground floor serving as a public house, the first floor as a function room, and residential accommodation above.

The architectural style is Free Flemish Revival with influences from Norman Shaw and Ernest George. The ground floor pub front on the south-west elevation projects forward and features polished grey granite, granite pilasters and an angle pier with Ionic capitals. The original central entrances to each elevation have been modified as windows; entrances now sit to either side of the south-west elevation within lobbies with curved windows. External joinery is mainly original. Some original etched and cut window glass survives, particularly in the doors and upper lights of windows; larger panes have been replicated, with the remainder plain glass.

The upper floors are richly modelled with extensive stone banding continued along window piers. A cornice runs around both elevations, with sections to the north-west and turret bearing carved relief decoration. Bays are articulated by chamfered brick pilasters, some surmounted by carved beasts bearing shields. Elaborate Flemish gables feature decorative moulded brick panels to the top stage. Timber sash windows with glazing bars to the upper sections throughout.

The north-west elevation displays a three-window range surmounted by a gable with scrolled broken-apex pediment. The first and second floors have central tripartite mullioned windows flanked by single windows. Those to the first floor possess flat arches with carved relief decoration; those to the second floor have depressed gauged-brick arches with keystones, the central window bearing triple keystones and richly decorated tympanum with a grotesque mask. Two windows to the gable have plain tympana and triple keystones. A blind bay features a chimney stack carrying an aedicule with moulded brick swag, grotesque mask and scrolled pediment, bearing a cartouche with the pub name. A bold octagonal turret marks the corner, with rubbed brick colonnettes to the angles and triple-light bay windows to each floor. The octagonal lead roof is surmounted by a timber cupola.

The south-west elevation comprises a two-window range surmounted by a gable with segmental broken-apex pediment. Elliptical bay windows to the first floor have parapets continued upwards to form balconettes to the windows above, decorated with carved relief work. Second-floor tripartite mullioned windows match those on the north-west elevation. Two windows light the gable.

The interior of the pub has been altered. The ground floor is now open-plan with a central bar, though some original features remain, including cast-iron columns and decorative finishes. Late nineteenth-century chimneypieces are present. The original staircase survives. The first floor contains a function room with a timber chimneypiece. Rooms above the first floor were not inspected.

The World's End was a horse-bus terminus. Adjacent terraces were demolished in the twentieth century. The building represents a fine example of a public house in the gin-palace genre, dating from the 1895-1899 boom in pub building, and is of high townscape importance.