Lord Clyde Public House

Lord Clyde Public House

A public house of 1913, located on the corner of Clennam Street and Ayres Street, with minor late alterations.

The building is constructed of red-brown English-bond brickwork. The most distinctive feature is the extensive use of glazed green and cream earthenware tiles that clad the entire ground floor and continue in a band below the main cornice and around window surrounds. The tiles also decorate the pub sign at the chamfered corner and frame the oeil-de-boeuf first-floor window on the Clennam Street elevation. A flat roof is concealed behind a parapet.

The plan comprises five bays on both Clennam Street and Ayres Street elevations. The principal entrance, labelled "Public Bar", occupies the heavily chamfered corner where the two streets meet. The Clennam Street elevation and the first two bays of Ayres Street are three-storeys with a cellar beneath. The remaining bays step down, with the next two bays rising two storeys and the final bay a single storey. Two secondary entrances serve Clennam Street (the western one now disused, the other labelled "Saloon Bar"), and a service entrance is located in the northernmost bay of Ayres Street.

The ground floor is dominated by large single-pane etched glass windows above a roughly one-metre-high stallriser, topped by a row of quarter-sized panels along Clennam Street and the first two bays of Ayres Street. A cream tile fascia runs above the pub frontage, bearing the inscription "TRUMANS BURTON ALES THE LORD CLYDE TRUMANS LONDON STOUT E.J.BAYLING TRUMAN HANBURY BUXTON & CO LTD" highlighted in green tiles, beneath a heavy cornice. Many of the original etched glass windows have been replaced.

Upper-floor windows are sash windows, organized in pairs on each floor to Clennam Street and singly to Ayres Street, all set within green tiled surrounds that are most elaborately expressed in the oeil-de-boeuf. A tile band running below the cornice reads "TRUMAN HANBURY BUXTON & CO LTD ALES STOUT & PORTER" in green tiles on cream. A two-storey-high glazed tile plaque is mounted on the chamfered corner above the entrance at first and second storey levels, with a cream tile background surrounded by a green tile border. It bears the words "THE / LORD CLYDE", beneath which is a raised relief of a black eagle flanked by the words "TRADE" and "MARK", with "TRUMANS / BOTTLED / BEERS" below.

Internally, the ground floor contains two public rooms: one long and L-shaped, the other square, along with auxiliary rooms including toilets and kitchen, both recently refurbished. Both public rooms are panelled to dado-rail height. The bar and simple wooden canopy, matching the panelling, form an L-shape with a hatch for serving in the smaller room. Each bar retains its original fireplace, with the main bar's fireplace decorated in glazed green tiles matching the exterior. An original pub mirror decorates the present bar. Two light-wells at ground floor level serve the rear corridor, kitchen, main bar, and ladies' toilets. The positioning of a blocked doorway, light-wells, and ceiling marks indicate the original layout. The basement has been altered since construction but retains several original panelled doors.

The upper storeys provide domestic accommodation, with a simple plan of four rooms per floor. All rooms except one retain their original fireplaces, and some retain picture-rails and gas lamp fittings. The stair has been encased, with only the lower simple turned balusters remaining visible.

The pub was named after Field Marshal Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde (1792-1863), a Scottish officer who rose from humble origins to become Commander in Chief. The first Lord Clyde Public House was erected at the time of his death in 1863. The building was rebuilt in 1913 with its present frontage, including the distinctive green and cream earthenware tiles. The new landlord at that time, E.J. Bayling, undertook these works and had his name prominently displayed alongside that of the brewers, Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co.