Windsor Castle Public House

Windsor Castle Public House, Campden Hill Road

A public house dating from around 1826, altered in 1933. The building is constructed of stock brick with roughcast and stucco facing, and a Welsh slate roof.

The structure comprises two main blocks: the original front block to the west with a slightly later irregularly-shaped extension projecting from the north-east corner; a modern single-storey kitchen extension spans the rear of the site. The ground floor is divided by screens into several small drinking areas, with separate access from the street. The first floor has several small rooms accessed via a common landing.

The principal elevation to Campden Hill Road is of painted roughcast with rusticated stucco quoins and is four bays wide. The ground-floor windows have fixed multi-pane glazing, while the smaller first-floor windows have plate-glass sliding sashes. A glazed central doorway marked 'CAMPDEN BAR' forms a pilastered centrepiece with the two flanking windows. The return elevation to Peel Street has two further glazed doors marked 'PRIVATE BAR' and 'SHERRY BAR'. A flat-roofed north-east block, also with stucco quoins, projects to the left, with a large multi-paned window at ground level. The rear elevation is of painted brick, with projecting wings to left and right. Three six-over-six-pane sashes survive on the first floor, one on the original block and two on the north-east extension flanking a projecting stack.

The ground floor interior was remodelled in 1933 and comprises four distinct drinking areas divided by panelled oak screens and served by a C-shaped bar with a matchboard front and carved mahogany shelving behind. The Campden bar at the front centre and Private bar at the front left have pine matchboard dados and pew-like fixed benches with tall shaped ends. The Ordinary Bar to the right has a matchboard dado, plain glazed screens and a brick fireplace in the end wall. The Sherry bar at the rear left has oak panelling to frieze height, with moulded verticals and chamfered rails enclosing sunk square panels. The bar front has similar panelling. A ceiling beam spans the space, with corbels carved to resemble bunches of grapes. An arched brick fireplace in the rear wall has a painting of Windsor Castle set into the panelling above. The upper panels in this area have applied cartouches with relief carving. To the left is a deep window bay with panelling and fixed benches.

A stair behind the bar area leads up to the first floor, which appears to retain its 1820s form, comprising several small bedrooms opening onto a common landing via four-panelled doors set in moulded surrounds.

The building stands on Campden Hill Road, which originally ran as a lane between the estates of Holland House and Campden House, two large mansions built for wealthy courtiers in the early 17th century. By the beginning of the 19th century, the area was being engulfed in London's western suburbs. The Campden House estate was parcelled up for development, and Campden Street and Peel Street were laid out from 1823 onwards by John Punter and William Ward. In 1826 Ward granted a 99-year lease on the plot at the corner of Peel Street and Campden Hill Road to the brewers Douglas and Henry Thompson of Chiswick, who developed the site as the Windsor Castle public house. Various changes were later made to the building, including two phases of refenestration and the remodelling of the ground floor interior around 1933. In the late 20th century a flat-roofed kitchen extension was built to the rear.