Coach and Horses

Coach and Horses

A public house built around 1840 on the site of an earlier establishment of the same name. It was substantially altered in 1889 and later internally remodelled in the 1930s.

The building is constructed of rendered brick with a part-tiled pub frontage set back behind 12 cast-iron columns. These columns are fluted with ornamented necks and substantial square capitals. The pub occupies a prominent corner plot with a recessed curved corner treatment typical of the 1840s period. The frontage features four separate bar entrances, some with embossed lettering to their glazed panels, and cream-tiled stall risers run between the entrances beneath the bar room windows.

Above the pub frontage are three rendered storeys, with two bays facing Greek Street and three facing Romilly Street. The sash windows to the upper floors are set in moulded surrounds, those to the first floor featuring a cornice with paired consoles. A moulded cornice runs above the third-floor windows and a parapet screens the half-hipped, double range roof and chimney stacks. The curved corner is marked by a recessed panel with a later twentieth-century signboard affixed. Hanging boards bearing the Canon Brewery emblem and later painted boards (including the name 'NORMAN'S' in reference to the long-serving landlord Norman Balon) feature on both elevations.

The ground floor bar areas are divided into three spaces by a pair of central screens, though the doors to these screens have been removed to open out the interior. The bar is fitted with simple fielded panelling to picture-rail height, a scheme probably undertaken by Taylor, Walker & Co in the latter half of the 1930s. Each bar area is linked by the servery, which runs along the north side and features a long counter with a tapered front and linoleum inlay. The bar back retains original shelving and continues the cornice line of the panelling, with later back-lit signage advertising various beers.

The west room served as the public bar and has an overhanging counter top designed to accommodate bar stools. The saloon bar features a much narrower counter top and a substantial terrazzo trough running around the corner at the base with unusual removable panels with ring-pulls for cleaning. An original brick fireplace sits on the north side of the saloon, and a dumbwaiter integrated within the east wall panelling allowed meals to be sent down from above. The saloon floor, once covered in linoleum, reveals cream, dark red and grey 1930s floor tiles beneath. The middle section served as a private bar, with its own now-blocked entrance from Romilly Street, and a terrazzo trough continues from the adjacent saloon bar.

The first floor has been adapted to provide a dining area and adjacent kitchen, with the former domestic layout evident in retained features including original floorboards, skirting, a fitted cupboard, decorative plaster cornice and two simple moulded fire surrounds with cheek tiles and cast-iron insets. The second and third floors retain their original room configuration, each consisting of a larger rectangular room to the corner and a roughly square room to the east with the landing, a small store and the stairs. The eastern bay at second and third-floor level is distinct from the rest of the building, entirely separated by a party wall and served by its own central dog-leg staircase of around 1840. The western staircase is original, retaining newel posts and turned balusters.

The cellar has the same floor-plan as the pub, save for two vaults that undersail Romilly Street. An additional vault is set to the west, although this has been blocked. Stairs to the first floor are set behind the servery, leading to residential rooms above the dining and kitchen areas. The women's WC was built in line with post-war licensing requirements, with its entrance screen constructed from the removed doors to the bar dividers.