The Wheatsheaf, Camberley

The Wheatsheaf, Camberley

A decagonal pub with an attached square wing containing a function room, service areas and manager's accommodation, designed by John and Sylvia Reid and built between 1969 and 1971.

The building is constructed principally of brick clad in Welsh slate. Internal finishes include quarry tiles, pine beams, woodwool panels and Leicestershire straw-faced brick.

The plan comprises a decagonal main bar area with a ratchet-wheel arrangement, adjoined to the south by a stepped single and double-storey square range housing service areas, a function room and upper-level manager's accommodation. The pub connects with the adjacent shopping precinct at its south-western corner.

The main bar occupies an undivided single space. A central decagonal chimney forms the structural lynchpin of the decagonal arrangement and resembles a column supporting the segmental roof. The chimney is constructed of textured brickwork with an uneven finish of angled stretchers and projecting headers, with a series of small hearth openings at its base. Around the chimney sits a rounded fireside bench faced in quarry tiles, which was truncated slightly on the south side around 1989 to create additional space in front of the servery.

Six alcoves or snugs are arranged around the perimeter at different floor levels, demarcated by plain exposed brick walls forming the inner edges of the building's star-like plan. Lower-level bays have quarry-tiled floors whilst those at higher level to the east are carpeted as originally. Natural light enters through glazed doors leading to the terrace outside, windows above these doors and clerestory lights. The ceiling has a stepped profile formed of woodwool slabs with timber ribs defining the roof's slope.

The bar servery occupies the south of the main space, divided into three sections within protruding bays of the decagonal plan. The original counter positions remain canted in the middle between the brick bay walls, though they have been refronted with traditional moulded timber panels and pilasters. Original walls dividing the counter area contain openings or squints, and an opening in the west wall dividing the servery from the lobby enabled supervision and visibility between counter sections.

Above the servery, oversailing the bar counters, is a mezzanine level reached by stairs. The gallery stairs and the smaller set down to the bar were rebuilt in 1989 slightly east of their original positions, blocking direct access from the centre of the pub to the sixth alcove bay, which is now accessed via an inserted doorway in its return wall. The gallery is divided by brick walls into three small intimate areas or cubicles with fixed seating, connected by narrow openings which overlook the main bar. The balustrade, decorative orbs and Perspex panels screening the gallery are original, though moulded balusters have been added. On the west side immediately above the pub's entrance is the minstrels' gallery proper, accessed via a narrow door from the adjacent cubicles and now used for storage.

The exterior west elevation overlooks the shopping precinct plaza. The overhanging upper storey of the precinct extends to the west face of the pub and provides cover for its entrance. This west elevation is rendered and painted, the only elevation to have lost its original slate cladding. To the north and east, above the slate-clad walls, the roof radiates from the central chimney as a series of monopitched triangular-shaped segments. These step down gradually from west to east and rise in height again from east to west on the south side, intersecting with the roof over the manager's flat. The spaces created by the stepped roof profile are filled with glazed panels forming a clerestory and allowing natural light into the bar. The narrow return walls of the radiating segments are glazed, and several have part-glazed doorways with windows over; fire escape doors have been installed in other bays.

The doors connect the snugs with a series of quarry-tiled terraces surrounding the pub, formed of triangular segments with walls doubling as benches and shadowing the building's star-like shape. A simple timber smoking shelter covers the westernmost terraced section.

The rear elevation to the south is masked at ground-floor level by a high brick boundary wall enclosing the service yard. The range attached to the back of the pub on the east side is of single-storey height with monopitch roof lights. Set back behind this, a blind wall rises up to form the eastern elevation of the manager's flat at first-floor level, which has a long range of windows and a balcony to the south elevation.

The southern square block adjoins the decagonal body of the original single-bar area. Its ground floor comprises an entrance foyer, function room, kitchen, bottle store or cold cellar and male and female WCs. The function room is rectangular in plan and was created in 1989 through remodelling of the storage space, WCs and staff office which originally occupied this area. The function room has windows and a central door to the yard on its south side. In the rear yard, adjoined to the south-west of the function room via a small lobby, is a former garage which was converted for use as a cold cellar extension in 1989. The manager's flat occupies the first floor and is understood to contain a kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms and a lounge with access to a balcony overlooking the rear yard. The areas on both levels of the southern square block were fitted out to standard specifications and do not carry through the careful internal detailing of the main decagonal bar area.

A simple brick wall and steel gates screen off the rear yard.