Prince Alfred Public House

Prince Alfred Public House

This public house was built in 1863 and substantially remodelled around 1898, with minor alterations made in the early 2000s. The building is constructed of stuccoed brick with a slate roof.

The principal elevation faces Castellain Road with a return elevation to Formosa Street, both three storeys high. The ground floor features a remodelled façade of around 1898, dominated by a richly detailed timber and etched-glass frontage. A pair of fluted iron composite columns support the fascia and a dentilled cornice, which were installed at this time to structurally support the upper floors and to enable the recessed front with its sinuous design. The frontage extends around the corner to Formosa Street and features bowed windows with etched and engraved glass displaying recurring motifs of birds in foliage and draped garlands; some window panes are later replicas. A central projecting window bay is flanked by a series of canted windows which sweep back in ogee curves to the side entrances. A consistent fielded-panel riser runs at the base of the front, with arched windows and a continuous dentilled course above. Composite columns and broken pediments feature in the central window bay and at each bar entrance. Mosaic flooring is laid to the recessed corner at the junction with Formosa Street and to the southerly entrances. The wall of the right-hand entrance is tiled with plain and embossed tiles in cream, olive, blue and brown. Elaborate scrolled plasterwork forms the ceilings over the entrance areas, a scheme replaced following damage in 2015. Pairs of hanging lamps with tapered glazing are mounted on iron swan-neck brackets to the fascia of both elevations.

The upper floors date to the original 1863 phase. The first floor has a central tripartite sash window with further sashes to the outer bays, set in architraves. The second floor has a central Venetian window flanked by keyed segmental-arched sashes. Both elevations are treated with a consistent Italianate scrollwork frieze and cornice, and a continuous ornate cast-iron balustrade runs above the fascia, partially screening the first-floor windows.

The rear billiard hall is a single-storey addition of around 1898, with a shallow-pitched roof and a central haystack rooflight. To Formosa Street, the elevation has a series of sash windows and a fire exit door, all replaced during the 2000 work.

The interior of the main section fronting Castellain Road is divided into five bar compartments separated by screens, which radiate from a long servery fitted with an island bar back gantry. The ornate timber bar screens have etched glass in their upper parts and are surmounted by carved broken pediments and flanked by delicate balustrades. Doors in the lower part of each screen allowed service access, originally for pot boys to collect glasses. The small bar adjacent to the southern entrance, originally the ladies' bar, has counter-top snob screens with rotating etched glass panels for customer privacy. The bar counter was refronted in 2000 with applied moulded borders giving the appearance of fielded panels. The tall island bar back features classical motifs, a central clock bearing the pub's name, and glazed sections to the shelving of the flanking panels, with the central section left open. The upper part is fixed to the ceiling by ornate iron brackets. The back wall of the servery displays a further elaborate bar back fixture terminating in decorated coving and a broken pediment. The large southerly bar has a tiled dado with brown, light and dark blue and turquoise tiles, and a brown and white marble fire surround. A high-level curved wooden screen forms the entrance to the restaurant, formerly the billiards hall, from this bar. The bar counter and back in the restaurant area is a 2000 replacement broadly matching contemporary work elsewhere. Steel trusses integrating the central haystack rooflight are visible within the restaurant, and a classical timber fire surround occupies the south wall. The cellar beneath the Formosa Street former billiard hall has flagstone floors, four brick vaults converted to dining booths, and some original shelving of stone and slate. WCs at this level were installed during the 2000 work.

The staircase from the Formosa Street entrance leading to residential accommodation above retains its mid-19th-century pierced iron balusters.

The upper rooms and the part of the cellar to the Castellain Road side were not inspected internally.