The Royal Oak

The Royal Oak

A public house built in 1923, probably by A E Sewell for Truman's brewery, the Royal Oak occupies a corner plot at the junction of Columbia Road and Ezra Street. It is constructed from brown and buff London stock brick with red brick dressings and cream faience, finished with Truman's distinctive mottled green tiling on the principal elevations and brown glazed brick to the return elevation and boundary wall.

The building is two storeys with an attic above the front two bays and a single-storey range to the rear. The open-plan bar occupies the southern end of the building with ancillary rooms behind, three public entrances on the Columbia Road elevation serving different bar rooms, an off-sales compartment, and a staircase leading to the first-floor club room.

The ground floor bar area is entirely clad in cream faience above cill level and green tile below, heavily glazed with pairs of one-over-one sash windows in faience architraves with three lights above the transom. Cills are flush with the façade and formed of curved green glazed blocks. The southern corner of the building is canted, featuring a half-glazed double door with two-over-one panes and a four-pane overlight with vertical glazing bars, the lintel in moulded faience. A second double door in the centre of the south-east elevation is etched with 'BOTTLE AND JUG', with a single half-glazed door to the right. Shallow corbels with circles and guttae project beneath a fascia with egg and dart mouldings and cornice. The pub's name projects in faience from the fascia and a framed panel above the canted bay door. Above this a panel inscribed '1923 / TRUMAN / HANBURY / BUXTON / & CO LTD' sits beneath a segmental arch with shaped copings and kneelers with guttae. The south-west elevation continues beyond the bar rooms in simpler materials: brown glazed brick beneath the cill, plain surrounds to windows and doors with gauged brick arches, projecting keystones on the three higher openings to the single-storey range connecting to an impost band of red brick.

The first floor has three bays on the principal elevation, above which the attic features a pair of shaped gables with single windows. Windows have three-over-one light sashes with arched meeting rails, moulded cills, gauged brick arches with projecting keystones and a wide brick band at impost level. The return elevation is two bays beneath a single shaped gable with a central chimneystack, then drops to two storeys to the north-west. Parapet and gables are lined with white moulded faience copings. The roof above the attic is hipped; above the rear two-storey and single-storey parts it is flat. The rear elevation is modestly detailed with plain window openings and gauged brick arches.

The ground floor interior is now open plan with a central island bar servery. Fielded panelling lines the counter and walls to three-quarters height, with beer names inlaid in certain areas. Floors are parquet block except for a boarded area in the north corner, formerly a dining room. This area contains a fireplace with panelled timber surround. A second fireplace in the east corner of the former public bar has a brown tiled surround set into the panelling. The ceiling is white Vitrolite panelling with timber ribs and small square bosses to the corners.

The public stair to the first floor rises on the north-east side, accessed via a lobby from the street or the public bar, with a small section of panelling on the left and a modern handrail. The stairwell is enclosed by a balustrade of triplets of stick balusters. A back stair features a moulded handrail.

The main first-floor room is open plan, retaining a curved bar counter with fielded panelling, skirtings and picture rail. Two fireplaces are present: one with a simple painted oak surround with delicate mouldings and red tiling, the other with brown tiling and a timber mantel shelf. A second room to the rear is similarly detailed with a red-tiled fireplace and a door, presumed a later insertion replacing a window, leading to the flat roof of the rear single-storey range. Several four-panel internal doors survive in moulded architraves.

The attic floor provides staff accommodation. A boundary wall continues to the rear of the building, enclosing the rear yard.