The Kings Arms Public House

The Kings Arms Public House is a late 19th-century public house situated on a street corner, located at the junction of George Street and Pembroke Street in Devonport. The building is constructed of polychrome brick with dressed stone, terracotta, and glazed tile detailing. The roof is largely hidden behind a coped parapet, featuring moulded cornices and turned balustrades above the windows. A prominent turret stands on the corner, topped with a heavy moulded cornice, bracketed frieze, and a tower to the right of the return. This tower has a steep pyramidal copper roof and a finial, set behind a balustraded parapet with a moulded cornice. A brick stack is also present.

The building’s plan is a long rectangle with a canted corner bay. The exterior presents a 1:1:5:1 bay arrangement along George Street and the longer return onto Pembroke Street. The corner bay features three-light oriel windows above a round-arched doorway, which has chamfered jambs and a fanlight with margin panes over a 20th-century door. Adjacent to this is a tower bay with two keyed window openings above a round-arched doorway featuring a small-paned fanlight and an original panelled door. Other bays exhibit moulded eared architraves around first and second-floor windows; the first-floor windows have keyblocks and a moulded entablature. They contain two-light transomed casements with glazing bars above the transoms. The moulded entablature continues with a trailing frieze above a ground floor featuring round-arched window openings with moulded glazed arches and stepped keys, springing from glazed piers above an ashlar pedestal/plinth. Cartouches are present within the spandrels of the arches. The ground floor windows have three lights with double transoms and glazing bars above those transoms.

The interior was only partially inspected, but it is noted to have an elaborate moulded and carved cornice within the large ground-floor bar. The building is included on the list as an externally impressive and well-detailed example of late 19th-century public house design.