The White Hart public house

The White Hart is an 1889 public house designed by Alfred Edwin Stallard, drawing inspiration from the work of R. Norman Shaw. It is constructed of red brick in English bond, with terracotta dressings, applied half-timbered gables, and tiled roofs.

The building occupies a corner location and stands two-and-a-half storeys high. The original layout is uncertain, but likely included a main tap room accessible from a corner entrance, and a separate saloon or parlour from North Street. The corner entrance is no longer in use, and a central window on East Street has been converted into a doorway, while the original entrance on North Street remains. The ground floor interior is now a single, large space with a panelled public bar. A double flight staircase, with turned newels and balusters, provides access to the upper floors.

The fronts onto East and North Streets are almost identical, each with three bays separated by a canted and recessed corner. The wider bays receive more elaborate detailing, including a continuous plinth and string courses at sill and first-floor levels. Ground-floor openings feature three-centred arches with gauged voussoirs and continuous hood-moulds. The outer bays have recessed, three-light casement windows with a geometric pattern of glazing bars above the transom. Decorative terracotta panels in a Jacobethan style are situated beneath these windows.

The second floor is covered in tiles, with upper courses featuring a fishscale pattern. The corner bay has a terracotta panel below a moulded brick architrave and swan neck pediment. Prominent, canted oriel windows of “Ipswich” type, with margin lights and patterned glazing bars, are present in the outer bays, while the intervening windows have two transomed lights. Bold gables with plain bargeboards and painted half-timbering top the oriels, which are supported by ornate brackets. Pedimented dormer windows are set between the gables. A decorative ridge tile surmounts the red-tiled roof, and decorative ridge tiles are present. Elaborate chimney stacks with corbelled brick courses are visible on the end walls.

The ground floor interior features a panelled public bar with barley-twist columns. Walls are either panelled to cornice height or have a matchboard dado. Cast-iron fireplaces and grates are also present on the ground floor.

A later extension to the north-east corner, which adjoins the original building, is not considered to be of special architectural or historic interest.