The George Public House

The George Public House

Built in 1897 on the site of an earlier establishment, this public house occupies the north corner of D'Arblay Street and Wardour Street. The architect is unknown. A public house has stood on this site since at least 1739, and the present building was probably erected for the Meux and Co brewery, which operated from 1807 until its purchase by Allied Breweries in 1961.

The building is three storeys high with an attic and cellar, constructed in red brick with a polished granite pub front and white painted stone dressings and banding in a free Queen Anne style. The roof is L-plan with slate mansards.

The ground floor features a rounded corner to its polished granite plinth with granite pilasters topped by fluted stone consoles rising through the fascia and supporting small aedicules with floral motifs in their niches, connected by a moulded cornice. The east elevation to Wardour Street has centrally-placed double doors with a multi-pane transom flanked by narrow consoles supporting a segmental pediment in the fascia. The windows either side have upper and lower transoms, the lower being multi-paned with oval glazed panels (the left with cut glass lettering) and etched and cut glass lights. The D'Arblay Street elevation to the south has single doors, one either side of two window bays. The hanging inn signs and carriage lamp over the corner bay are modern.

Above the pub front, the east elevation comprises a single bay and the south elevation two bays, expressed with triple sash windows on the first and second storeys of the east elevation and single sashes on the south with slightly canted panels below the second storey windows, creating the impression of shallow bay windows. Each bay is topped by a dormer window with pediment rising above the parapet; the dormer on the south elevation has a semi-circular balconette with iron railings. The canted corner has decorative stone or stucco panels on each upper storey. The first storey panel has a ribbon design containing the legend "THE GEORGE" above the date 1897, whilst the second storey has a cartouche containing a relief bust of George IV with the Prince of Wales feathers above and the letter G in laurel leaves below. An angled, banded chimney with a segmental pediment tops the stone cap.

The interior consists of a single bar with the bar counter set against the north wall. This is the original curved mahogany counter with panels separated by fluted pilasters. The ornate bar-back is also original, with three bays, each with etched glass and mirrored panels and shelving supported on turned columns. The bar-back rises to three semi-circular mirrors below a cornice projecting over the central bay. To the east of the bar counter is a large painted glass mirror in a wood-framed cut glass surround advertising Meux and Co's celebrated ales with its horseshoe trade mark and painted birds and foliage. On the west wall are two further large painted mirrors: one for Mitchell and Co's Cruiskeen Lawn Irish whiskey and another for HD Rawlings' mineral water of Neate Street, Camberwell. The room has original moulded dado panelling with matchboard panelling above, narrow-boarded oak flooring and Anaglypta ceiling (a textured wall covering made of wood pulp and cotton, first produced in 1887). The west wall contains a red marble fireplace (without the cast-iron grate), and the cut-glass glazed inner west door with etched glass side panels is probably original.

On the first floor, some original late-Victorian fireplaces (including a similar marble one to the bar fireplace but with the grate) and panelling to the shallow bay windows survive, as does the stair to the first floor, though some turned balusters are missing.