The Gannet Public House

The Gannet Public House is a wine merchant’s shop, later adapted as a public house, dating to approximately 1884-85, and possibly designed by A Thorne. The building is constructed of coursed stone rubble with red sandstone detailing, the ground storey having a painted finish. It has a tarred slate roof and a red-brick chimney with a moulded top cornice on the left side-wall. The architecture is an eclectic Queen Anne style, incorporating Early Renaissance details to its symmetrical front.

The building is three storeys high, with a garret, and has a three-window front. The ground storey is arranged across four bays, with pilasters placed between the bays and at either end. Each bay has a round-arched opening with a moulded archivolt springing from square half-columns and a fluted keystone. Above the pilasters is a deep entablature, featuring pedestals carrying fruit-filled vases in high relief, the pedestals resting on large foliated scroll-brackets. Much of the detail within the arches has been altered, but the second arch from the right retains a transom-light with coloured glass.

The upper storeys are flanked by pilasters, which are connected across the front between the storeys by an entablature with a panelled frieze. A moulded eaves cornice runs along the top. The windows have moulded architraves and two-paned sashes, except for the central second-storey window, which is a three-light mullioned-and-transomed bow window with panelled, moulded bases and top entablature, surmounted by a patterned iron railing.

Three dormer gables project from the roof, each flanked by pilasters and featuring triangular pediments. The pilasters are buttressed by scrolls, and the round-arched windows have moulded keystones rising to the apexes of the pediments, with two-paned sashes. The dormers have slate-hung sides.

The interior was only partly inspected. The ground-floor bar has been largely altered, though some moulded ceiling cornices remain. The entrance hall to the upper storeys, at the left-hand end, has moulded cornices and a floor of patterned coloured tiles. A plain staircase leads to the upper floors, where a half-glazed door with coloured glass and patterned glazing bars is located. The building is included for its group value.