Royal Oak public house

Royal Oak public house

A public house with origins as a probable house of the later 17th century. The building was refaced in brick and extended to the rear in the late 18th or early 19th century. Multiple single-storey extensions have been added on the north, south and east sides during the 20th century, with substantial interior remodelling.

The main structure is built of brick laid in Flemish bond, whitewashed, with partial survival of earlier timber frame. It is roofed in tile from probably the late 18th or early 19th century, with weatherboarded gables at attic level.

The rectangular plan comprises two storeys plus an attic and cellar, with a central stack. The main west elevation onto Cooling Road is symmetrical, with three bays and a central entrance. Above the entrance is an oculus window on the first floor, which has lost its original glazing bars (visible in a photograph of around 1900). The two flanking first-floor windows are eight-over-eight timber sashes in segmental arched openings with timber sills. The northern sash is probably early 19th century; the southern is a 20th-century replacement. Ground-floor fenestration is modern. The entrance has been enlarged by the addition of a modern window, and the early 20th-century southern extension has been altered with large modern windows replacing two entrances and a single window shown in a photograph of around 1930. A fascia panel and cornice extends along the entire frontage. The roof is steeply pitched and half-hipped with a catslide extension to the rear. It has overhanging eaves with an eaves cornice and 20th-century cast-iron guttering on struts. The central stack has been rebuilt above roof level. The southern extension carries a replacement covering of modern fibre cement tiles. At the rear, the building has been extended piecemeal with flat-roofed ranges.

The ground floor comprises a bar on either side of a shallow lobby entrance. The bars have been knocked through into extensions at north and south, with a single servery passing behind the central stack. Bar-counters, bar-back, fixed seating and other joinery are modern. A number of principal timber beams and posts survive, with deep chamfers and bar-stops. Studding to the rear of the bar may be original, indicating the original rear wall. Back-to-back chimney breasts survive though their fireplaces are blocked.

Behind the principal bars is a large function room with kitchens and WCs, mainly within a late 20th-century extension but at the west end within the part covered by the catslide roof. A straight stair with matchboard panelling at the west end of the function room provides access to the first floor.

The first floor originally contained two rooms. The southern room has been partitioned. The northern room has a narrow gallery to the rear beneath the slope of the catslide roof, lined with matchboard panelling. On the east side of the stack is a small closet accessed by a plank and batten door with iron strap hinges and a spring latch with drop handle, lined with square panelling presumably reused from elsewhere. A corresponding cupboard in the northern room also has a panelled interior and door. Both rooms have chamfered beams with plain stops (boxed-in in the northern room). Fireplaces are blocked and a window in the north wall of the northern room is blocked. At the front, lit by the oculus window, is a small stair lobby with a modern newel stair to the attic floor, which contains two rooms with modern fittings. The roof structure, from areas inspected, appears to be of late 18th or early 19th-century date but with later strengthening.

The cellar was not inspected.