Royal Vauxhall Tavern

The Royal Vauxhall Tavern is a public house dating from 1860-2, likely designed by James Edmeston. It was later remodelled internally in 1896 by R A Lewcock for the publicans Poole and Venner, and again in the 1980s. The building is constructed of stock brick with stucco dressings, with pitched roofs concealed behind a parapet and rear extensions.

The building has a curved street frontage arranged over three storeys, with wings to the rear. Originally, the pub had a single bar space, initially divided into three separate bars, each with direct street access. A separate entrance to the right provides access to the upper floors, which previously included accommodation and likely a function room on the street frontage.

The street facade has six bays. The upper floors are articulated by giant order pilasters that support pediments in the outer bays; the inner bays feature a round-arched arcade above the second floor. The outer bays have rusticated pilasters framing a full-height recessed panel, which contains a pedimented first-floor window with scrolled brackets, and a window above with a shallow stilted arch featuring stucco capitals and a keystone. The inner bays have round-arched windows on the first floor, incorporating moulded impost bands, and on the upper floor, a narrow cill band and moulded brackets. Most windows are horned sashes.

On the ground floor, three entrances, with a central doorway now blocked, are flanked by engaged, fluted timber columns on square bases, four of which retain their Corinthian capitals. Moulded panels are between the entrances, and overlights are positioned above, the least altered of which have a central lozenge panel. A later 20th-century architrave marks the entrance to the upper floors on the right (south). The plinth below the ground floor windows is faced in ox blood coloured tiles with darker flush panels, although it was painted in 2015. The fascia is also later 20th-century.

Inside, six cast iron cylindrical columns with Composite capitals arrange in an arc, supporting the curved stairwell above; the bases are enclosed by 20th-century cladding. Entrance doors have moulded architraves. The bar area is a single space, remodelled and fitted out in the 1980s, which is not considered to be of special interest.

A closed string staircase with turned newels and moulded balusters rises from the first to the second floors, built against a curved inner wall. The principal room on the first floor, possibly a former function room, has been subdivided, and much of the interior joinery has been replaced. Elsewhere, upper floors feature moulded door and window architraves and four-panel doors. Several upper floor rooms contain round-arched cast iron fireplaces with grates that have integral trivets or pot stands.

The aforementioned 20th-century features relating to the entrances, fascia and bar fit-out are excluded from the listing as they are not of special architectural or historic interest.