The Tabard

The Tabard

A row formerly comprising a public house, private house and stores, now a public house and offices. Designed in 1880 by Richard Norman Shaw as part of Jonathan Carr's development of Bedford Park on Bath Road, Bedford Park.

The building is constructed of red brick with rough-cast and tile-hanging, and features tiled roofs. It forms a three-storey row divided into seven gabled bays, recessed in the centre.

The western section, known as the Tabard, occupies two bays with a gabled return to the west. The ground floor features an entrance porch carried on Tuscan columns, flanked by many-paned windows. The first floor has projecting bow windows flanked by round windows, with a projecting painted pub sign suspended from a moulded beam. Above is a projecting twin-gabled overhang above a moulded cornice, tile-hung with five-light mullioned windows in each gable. The western return is similar, though partly hidden by a later fire escape. A tile-hung rear extension adjoins this section.

The central two bays have brick facing up to second-floor level. They are entered through a pair of six-pane doors within gauged brick shouldered surrounds with pediments, and feature four 4x6-pane sash windows to the ground floor with keystones and aprons. The first floor contains four 6x16-pane sash windows with hoods, keystones and aprons, set between Doric pilasters supporting an entablature. The upper storey is jet-tied and rough-cast.

The easternmost three bays were originally stores, now converted to offices. These have extensively glazed ground floors over lunettes to the basement level, three eight-light leaded oriel 'Ipswich' windows on brackets to the first floor, and seven-light windows with arched centres to the jet-tied second floor. The return to Flanders Road follows similar treatment, with a large garage door to the ground floor, and oriel windows to the first floor on the rear elevation.

Interior features of the Tabard include entrance lobbies with glazed doors and overdoor strapwork reliefs; painted tile decoration by William de Morgan to the walls; moulded dado rails, door and window surrounds; a panelled bar counter with metal foot rest; an alcove with console-framed arch; bolection-moulded chimneypieces decorated with nursery rhyme tiles and mirrors; and a panelled rear alcove. The extension to the left incorporates the former ground floor of the neighbouring house, consisting of two adjoining rooms with tongue and groove panelling up to dado rail and a rear skylight. The first floor is currently in use as a theatre, accessed by stairs with panelling up to dado rail. This space features a large chimney piece with moulded surround incorporating painted tiles with egg and dart moulding, fielded panelling up to dado rail, and two panel doors with a window seat.

These buildings, together with St Michael's Church, were designed as the social centrepiece of Bedford Park and proved highly influential for subsequent suburban developments. Inspired by Staples Inn in Holborn, the Tabard exemplifies Shaw's English Domestic Revival style, often called the 'Queen Anne' style, which was widely imitated in Britain and the United States of America. The Tabard was a pioneering 'improved' pub, representing a deliberate rejection of the gin palace in favour of a more traditionally inspired and respectable inn.