Ealing Park Tavern

Ealing Park Tavern

This public house was built in 1885–1886 to designs by F W Lacey, the Brentford Borough Surveyor, for the Brentford Royal Brewery Company. The building was extended in phases during the inter-war period and mid-20th century.

The pub stands at the junction of Carlyle Road and South Ealing Road, with its main entrance facing east. It is constructed of red facing bricks with stucco upper storeys and Broseley clay tiles to the roof.

The original three-storey corner element, which survives much as illustrated in the Building News, exemplifies the Queen Anne and Old English styles influenced by Norman Shaw's work and the ambitious improved pub designs of the 1880s by London architects Vigers and Wagstaffe. The asymmetric composition features bowed windows and varied gables. A turreted corner contains a wrought-iron globe weather vane. The recessed saloon bar entrance is framed by a carved wooden arch with columns and Royal Brewery monograms. The entrance area has decorative glazed green tiling with Art Nouveau-style lettering advertising the saloon bar.

At street level, timber-framed plate glass windows with leaded top lights are arranged as a bowed pair to Carlyle Road and a prominent bay window to South Ealing Road. The facing bricks are laid predominantly in stretcher bond with fine struck pointing. A continuous fascia with dentils and an ironwork capping runs above the windows. The first floor combines brick with stucco upper portions and applied timbers. A variety of multi-paned windows are informally arranged at this level, including a large Ipswich window and three-part sash beneath a bracketed overhanging gable to South Ealing Road. Bowed casement windows to Carlyle Road align with those at street level. The upper storey features leaded windows, including a gable window and dormer to Carlyle Road, banded casements set into the eaves at the turreted corner, and a small oriel and gable window to the South Ealing Road elevation. The eaves course has a deep overhang with a boarded soffit and exposed rafter ends.

Inter-war extensions comprise a single-storey red brick bay to South Ealing Road with an overhanging bracketed gable end and paired plate glass windows with leaded upper lights. A slightly later projecting single-storey block with matching red brick and flat roof is attached to the north. A single-storey flat-roofed toilet block projects from Carlyle Road.

A distinct stable range, probably original and certainly present in the 1890s, occupies the western portion of the site. It has a red brick lower storey with stucco upper level. A gable end with an ocular window faces Carlyle Road; the main front to the east has two gables with high-level windows and entrances below. A late 20th-century lean-to addition is built against the Carlyle Road end. The range was recently used as a micro brewery until the pub's closure in January 2020.

Internally, the main bar room fronting Carlyle Road is served by a long counter with raked front and fielded panels between projecting pilasters, likely an original fitting from the late 19th century. The counter extends into the former club room, set back from Carlyle Road, with a horseshoe end section spanning both rooms and forming an undivided servery. Light oak fielded panelling, dating from the 1920s or 1930s, rises to dado level in the main bar and to picture-rail height in the former club room, indicating its higher status. A fire surround in matching light oak with an inset mirror stands at the west end of the main bar room; the fireplace itself has been removed, leaving an exposed brick opening. Two openings between the two Carlyle Road bar rooms are picked out with oak surrounds featuring pilasters and four-point Tudor arches above. Part-glazed wooden doors with leaded lights lead to the yard from the former club room. A further part-glazed door opens to the yard from the north wall, with a fireplace integrated into the fielded panelling adjacent to it.

A small room, originally the saloon bar accessed from the right door of the South Ealing Road entrance, is served by a distinct curved section of bar counter with its servery connecting to the main bar room's servery. Picture-rail height fielded panelling with an integrated fire surround featuring an inset mirror adorns the north wall. Fixed benching occupies the bay window.

The northernmost room on the South Ealing Road side, added by 1935, forms a distinct dining area. A series of beams set on brackets with joists set square to the ceiling creates a large open hall. Light oak fielded panelling, refurbished and rearranged in 2014, lines the walls. A fire surround with contemporary glazed brown tiles is positioned in the centre of the south wall. An open-plan kitchen was inserted at the northern end during 2014 remodelling.

The stable range has an open-plan arrangement. No information is available on the cellar arrangement or private accommodation to the upper floors.