The Queen's Head

The Queen's Head

Public house dating to around 1931, architect unknown but possibly Melville Seth-Ward, built for Fuller, Smith & Turner. The building is designed in an Arts and Crafts and Neo-Tudor manner.

The structure is built of soft red brick in Flemish bond, with pegged timber frames and brick infill (some set diagonally) or rendered panels. Plain tile roofs cover the building, and oak fixtures and fittings are used throughout.

The plan comprises a main two-storey section with canted single-storey wings of unequal length on each side, creating a butterfly-like arrangement. A two-storey service wing extends to the rear. The main section originally housed the public bar and saloon bar with staff accommodation above and kitchens in the rear wing. To the south is a single-storey saloon lounge with its own entrance, designed for sitting, eating and drinking. To the north is a covered carriage entrance with a single-storey service range including a garage.

The main building exterior is symmetrical across three bays and two storeys. The outer gabled bays have brick ground floors with timber-framed upper floors and gables infilled in brick and rendered. Tall, crisply moulded lateral stacks frame the gable walls. Windows throughout feature ovolo-moulded oak frames: ground floor windows have four-light cross casements set in on-edge flat brick openings with tile cills; first floor windows have three-light casements. All windows contain square-paned leaded lights.

The centrepiece rises one-and-a-half storeys beneath a half-hipped roof, offset forwards. Each side contains an entrance to the public and saloon bars, flanked by lozenge-patterned leaded margin lights and framed oak boarded doors with moulded muntins. The centre displays a lozenge-patterned leaded window flanked by brick panels above a brick base. The rendered gable above is lit by a single five-light casement window with square leaded lights set high beneath the eaves. A stone bust of Queen Elizabeth I is set into the wall beneath, with the pub's name displayed below. The main roof behind is hipped, with the central rear stack visible above.

To the right (south) is a single-storey saloon lounge of brick with exposed oversailing rafter feet. Projecting square window bays have tile-hung gables: the left bay (gents' WC) has a three-light cross-casement; the central bay contains a four-light cross-casement bay window with lozenge-patterned leaded lights. The far right (south) has a taller entrance bay with a timber-framed rendered gable, moulded panelled oak door and flanking windows matching elsewhere in the building. Gabled ventilation louvres project from each roof face.

Offset to the left on the corner of Cranford Lane is a projecting bay with a three-light cross-casement lighting both ladies' and gents' WCs. Beyond it lies a covered carriage entrance perpetuating the previous pub's plan. Set into a single-storey brick wing with a tile-hung gable and timber-framed rendered inner walls, it features a pair of framed timber doors with moulded panels set in a bracketed frame on the roadside. The attached wing's garden face has double garage doors. Rear windows are original casements with square or lozenge leaded lights, except for a large inserted ground floor entrance to the public bar. The rear service wing has a rendered rear wall, a deep catslide roof to the south over single-storey storage, and gabled dormer windows.

Inside, the entrance doors lead left and right into the former public bar and saloon bar, now united as a single space served by a central curved servery. Originally separate rooms, each served by its own bar counter, the position of the former partition remains visible in the ceiling and bar mouldings. The pub displays consistent high-quality oak fixtures and fittings, with the hierarchy of the bars expressed through their different fireplaces. Ground floor rooms feature oak three-quarter height panelling set in pegged timber frames. Oak doors are framed with four vertical panels with moulded muntins. Surviving door furniture comprises ornate iron strap hinges (the lower hinge curved, the upper embellished with a Tudor rose), shaped handles and latches. Windows retain robust stays, catches and ornate plates.

All bars contain round-arched brick fireplaces. The public bar fireplace has three concentric arches with a brick hearth and is set within a pegged timber-framed chimney-piece with a slender oak mantelshelf. The overmantel is inset with diagonally set brick panels. Left and right entrances lead to ladies' and gents' WCs (both bars unusually providing facilities for both). The saloon features an inglenook fireplace with a stone threshold and four concentric brick arches. Fixed benches with curved ends flank the inglenook. The bar has a panelled oak front and softwood top, with a later shallow canopy supported on pairs of square-based oak shafts above. The bar back is similarly detailed. The single-storey saloon lounge has a braced king post roof featured as a design element. Oak dado panelling rises above a single-arched brick fireplace with brick piers and shallow moulded brick cornice, with a stone hearth. The bay window retains fixed seating. The southern bay, formerly an entrance lobby, was altered in the 1970s and is lined in softwood panelling, containing a ladies' WC.

Stairs to first floor staff accommodation have square newels, rectangular balusters and a moulded rail. Some rooms have three-over-three panelled doors; others (at least one noted) contain moulded fireplaces typical of the period's bedroom design.

All plant, kitchen equipment and services are excluded from the listing.