Air Balloon Public House

The Air Balloon Public House, located on Mile End Road in Stamshaw, Portsmouth, was built around 1900 by AH Bone. It is an example of Neo-Tudor-Jacobean architecture, constructed primarily from flint and ashlar, with timber framing and stuccoed panels. The roof is steeply pitched with plain tiles, an ornamental ridge piece, and brick stacks positioned to the left and right of the centre.

The exterior is two storeys and an attic with four bays. The central bay slightly projects and features a recessed three-leaf door. Each door leaf has four lower panels of diagonal boarding, a central etched glass panel with eight panes of stained glass above, and an overlight. The door is set behind a round stone arch with an incised keystone and banded stone jambs filled with flint, topped with a banded cornice. To the left of the door is a three-light transomed and mullioned stone window, and to the right, a two-light version. Each casement has a lower panel of etched glass with leaded lights above the transom. A recessed door at the far left mirrors the central door design, with detailing including flanking male and female terms supporting brackets and pediments. The flint and ashlar walling is banded with ashlar.

The jettied timber-framed first floor features decorative panelling. The projecting central bay has a three-light transomed and mullioned casement, with two unequal panes and two panes above the transom, set under a flat timber lintel with an architrave. Above this is a jettied gable with a small four-pane attic casement, a projecting verge, and bargeboard. Two similar two-light and one one-light transomed and mullioned casements are located at the first floor to the left and right. The far-right corner is splayed and includes a two-leaf door and overlight, with a projecting porch supported by two ornately shaped, tapering timber columns on stone bases, moulded pedimental heads, shaped brackets with sculptured heads, and a projecting timber pediment. A first-floor window above mirrors the main elevation, topped with a gable featuring projecting verges and shaped bargeboards.