The Grosvenor Public House

The Grosvenor Public House

This public house was built in 1904 for the Royal Brewery (Brentford), designed by Thomas Henry Nowell Parr. A single-storey extension was added to the rear in the mid-20th century.

The building is constructed of rendered brick with cream-coloured terracotta dressings and detailing, and Royal Doulton glazed tiling to the ground floor. The main pitched roof is tile-covered, whilst those to the rear ranges are slate.

The pub is broadly rectangular in plan, with street elevations to Oaklands Road to the south and Grosvenor Road to the east. It contains two rear, two-storey ranges and a later single-storey extension. Internally, the pub is divided into two bar spaces with a central horseshoe-shaped servery. The main bar occupies the eastern part and extends into the mid-20th century single-storey extension to the north, which has a western door giving access to the beer garden at the rear. The L-shaped bar is accessed from an entrance on Grosvenor Road, another at the corner with Oaklands Road and a third from Oaklands Road itself, suggesting the bar was originally partitioned. A screen separates the smaller western bar, which has two entrances from Oaklands Road, part of which was probably for off-sales. To the rear of the bar is a stair lobby providing access to the upstairs function room, which occupies the western part of the first floor. Behind the bar counter is a small lobby with access to a kitchen and a stair giving access to the accommodation in the eastern part of the upper floor.

The exterior is designed in a free Jacobean Revival style. The principal south elevation to Oaklands Road comprises three bays, each topped by a blind gable connected by a terracotta balustrade with ball finials. The gables have baroque cartouches at the apex with ironwork fleur-de-lis decoration below. The brick chimneys have cross-shaped ribs, corbelled tops and largely retain the original tall pots. The first floor has a dentil cornice and rusticated quoins at the eastern corner. The western bay is differentiated by projecting piers to the balustrade, rusticated pilasters with fluted brackets to the first floor. First-floor fenestration consists of three paired timber horned sashes with terracotta jambs, sills, mullions and projecting dentil cornice. The sashes are six-over-one. The ground floor projects below a shallow tiled skirt roof with three curved pediments with cartouches bearing the monogram of the Royal Brewery Company. The ground floor has a timber fascia panel with modern lettering and dado tiling of mottled cream and brown Doulton tiles. Fenestration comprises timber-framed picture windows with etched glass panes bearing the name of the pub, Art Nouveau style coloured-glass transoms and blue Doulton-tiled continuous sills. The western bay is defined by green Doulton-tiled pilasters with terracotta fluted brackets and an entrance with a fanlight, probably originally to the off-sales. There is a recessed entrance between the east and central bays, with doors set either side of a tiled pilaster, and another canted entrance with double-doors on the corner of the two main elevations.

The original elevation to Grosvenor Road is divided into four bays with the southern two under the main gabled roof, then a two-storey bay under a flat roof with a low parapet and moulded cornice, and finally a single-storey northern bay. The gable has a similar cartouche to those on the south elevation and a pair of fleur-de-lis. Above the dentil cornice the name of the pub is inscribed in distinctive lettering and flanked by arched terracotta panels bearing the date '1904' in relief. First-floor fenestration to the southern bays consists of paired sashes as on the south elevation but without mullions, set in quoined surrounds with brackets. The northern two-storey bay has a single sash window in a plain square opening. The skirt roof continues round the two southern bays only, but otherwise the ground floor, including the single-storey section, is treated as on the Oaklands Road elevation with the same style of fenestration and tiling. The entrance on this elevation is flanked by green Doulton tiling and has a green glazed terracotta Art Nouveau style pediment bearing the inscription 'SALOON BAR'. The single-storey bay has lost its parapet and its monogramed pediment. The continuation of the single-storey block is of orange glazed brick with concrete capping, probably from an original toilet block.

The rear north elevations are plain, of yellow stock brick with red brick dressings.

Internally, the pub features fielded panelling, green painted in the main eastern bar and unpainted in the smaller western bar, wood floors and white-painted timbered ceilings. The horseshoe-shaped bar counter has a panelled bulbous front with tile plinth and a black and white mosaic tile apron. The plinth tiles are mainly original, with some later replacement, coloured blue in the west bar and black in the east. The bar has been truncated at the east end, where it probably originally extended beyond the door to the kitchen. The timber and mirrored bar-back has classical detailing with a replacement clock-face in a pediment on the east side.

The western bar has fluted brackets to the square-section pillars supporting the principal ceiling beams and a cast-iron column to the south of the servery. There are panelled screens to the entrance to the WCs in the north-east corner of the bar and to the entrance from Grosvenor Road. The two bars are separated by a screen with coloured glazed lights. The eastern bar has a window with coloured glass to the light well to the north and an arched brick fireplace with panelled surround on the west wall.

The western part of the first floor contains a large function room reached via a dog-leg stair. The function room has a beamed mansard ceiling and green painted fielded panelling to dado height. The bar counter is modern. The eastern part of the first floor contains living accommodation with some original four-panel doors. The room in the south-east corner retains its cornice and fireplace with a classical surround and an ornate cast-iron fluted hood.

The pub garden is bounded by stock brick walls to the north and west.