Old Justice Public House, Bermondsey Wall East, London

Old Justice Public House, Bermondsey Wall East, London

A corner-plot public house built in 1933 to the Neo-Tudor style, designed by Sidney C Clark for Hoare & Co brewery. The building was subsequently acquired by Charrington's brewery in 1934.

The pub is constructed principally of red brick in English bond with applied adzed timber, a pitched tiled roof and clustered brick chimneystacks. Metal-framed casement windows with leaded lights feature throughout.

The building follows an L-shaped plan with elevations to Bermondsey Wall East (north-east) and Farncombe Street (south-east). Attached modern residential accommodation wraps around the rear, enclosing a small yard to the south. Two main entrances serve the pub's distinct bar rooms: the principal entrance on Bermondsey Wall East, facing the Thames, serves the public bar which has male and female WCs on its east side. The Farncombe Street entrance provides access to the saloon bar (which has a WC), the former off-sales area (now opened out to the main saloon), and stairs to accommodation on the two upper storeys. A central servery with counters to both bar rooms divides the pub into two roughly equal spaces.

The Bermondsey Wall East elevation is composed in orderly Neo-Tudor fashion with applied timber framing to the upper floor and red English bond brickwork beneath. This elevation is divided into two equal bays, both featuring continuous groupings of five leaded casement windows across the two upper levels, with the central lights elongated and flanked by faux timber bracing on the second floor. At street level, the two bays contain a tripartite grouping of three windows to the east and a central door to the public bar flanked by a pair of windows to the west; both are framed by rustic adzed timbers. Beneath each of the windows are rectangular stall risers with individual brick detailing, including stretchers laid in chequer formation, diagonal bands, herringbone patterns and Flemish bond. A pair of Charrington's glazed lamps sporting the Toby Jug emblem, probably dating to the 1960s, are positioned above the outside windows on both sides of the frontage. A plaque commemorating the filming in 1984 of No More Lonely Nights and Give my Regards to Broad Street, featuring Paul McCartney, is positioned just above the west lamp.

The Farncombe Street elevation is less regular in arrangement. The northernmost bay consists of two sets of windows to each floor divided by a broad brick stack, which punctuates the otherwise consistent timber framing of the upper level. At street level, a further pair of windows to the WCs with coloured lights are framed with adzed timber surrounds and further decorative brick panels below. The central bay contains two set-back entrance doors with corner windows, giving access to the former off-sales to the south and upper floor accommodation to the north, both reached by steps. Above the doors are pairs of further windows with a central hanging signboard placed between the upper set, painted to feature a stern bewigged judge to the north side and a convict in the stocks to the south. The southern bay comprises the set-back and part-glazed saloon bar entrance door with steps up, flanked by coloured leaded windows with further pairs of leaded casement windows above.

The roof is double-hipped with ridge tiles. Clustered chimneystacks flank the two ends of the Bermondsey Wall East elevation and another occupies the end of the Farncombe Street range. Each stack has a trio of clustered chimneys set at an angle to the stack. Over-fired headers at the top of the stacks form half lozenge patterns. The rainwater collectors throughout feature Tudor rose emblems.

The south-west elevation is obscured by the residential block built to the south, save for the upper level which has a central stack with timber framing to either side. The north-west elevation is plain, with a section of white glazed brick to the south. The approximately 2016 plain red brick extension block has pairs of blind windows to the upper storeys. This residential extension does not contribute to the special interest of the building.

The interior has not been inspected, but evidence suggests that the two bars—saloon and public—along with their WCs and the central serving space occupy the whole ground floor footprint. Fittings throughout are unified by light oak, all part of the original scheme, though treatments differ between the two rooms.

The superior saloon bar is fitted with picture-rail height square fielded panelling. Two fireplaces heat the room, one positioned close to the door in the south wall, the other centrally in the west wall. Both have brick inserts with oak surrounds and overmantels which integrate framed panels with original painted nautical scenes set under overhanging cornices. The bar counter is set on a tiled platform serving as a footrest, with a series of recessed panels and protruding uprights set between to support the counter top. On the east side of the counter is a snug, formerly the off-sales, which has had its partition removed, though the counter to this section remains to make the section clearly legible. A central leaded glazed door with flanking lights in the south wall gives access to the yard area, and to the west is a door to the WCs.

The public bar on the Bermondsey Wall East side has picture-rail height slatted panelling with vertical grooves, contrasting with the saloon bar treatment. A single fireplace with a brick surround and overmantel is set centrally in the west wall. WCs with original signage are positioned at the east side of the room, with both doors integrated into the panelling. The bar counter has matching slatted and vertical groove treatment. A separate hatch counter, possibly originally used for food service, is set to the east side of the main counter. Set behind the two counters is a bar back with a leaded mirror screen with an emerald green border behind the shelving on both sides. A leaded glazed partition screen is set above.

The two bars are divided into roughly equal spaces by a central servery and also the closed staircase to the upper rooms accessed from Farncombe Street. The stairs lead up to residential accommodation on the first and second floors.

A set of cellar hatches is positioned on the east side of the Bermondsey Wall East frontage.