Trail:

Pubs 1 & 2

Click to enlarge
London, The Tottenham

THE TOTTENHAM, No. 6 Oxford Street. By Saville & Martin, 1892, for the Baker brothers, publicans and speculators, as part of a larger block of shops and offices. The architects designed several other pubs for the Bakers, usually in a similar mixture of fashionable small-scale details derived from Northern RenaissanceGlossary Term architecture. Many pubs were being rebuilt around this time, partly in response to restrictions on licensed premises: if new pubs could not be opened, then old ones could at least be rebuilt to attract new custom.

Click to enlarge
London, The Tottenham

Specialist firms fitted out the interior, which has a colourful escapism similar in feel to the theatres and music halls of the day: a painted ceiling, painted mirrors (which also helped make the most of the lightGlossary Term), and a coloured tile friezeGlossary Term.

THE PILLARS OF HERCULES, No. 7 Greek Street. 1935 by J.S. Quilter & Son, who designed many London pubs in this style, mostly for Youngers' brewery. By the 1930s pubs often looked back to an Old EnglishGlossary Term style associated with traditional values and solid quality. It was no coincidence that the same half-timbered style was used for countless suburban houses, giving the pub a suggestion of a 'home from home' rather than an alcoholic escape into a different world.

Click to enlarge
London, Pillars of Hercules

Glossary

Frieze

The middle member of the classical entablature, sometimes ornamented. Pulvinated frieze (lit. cushioned): of bold convex profile. Also a horizontal band of ornament.

Light

Compartment of a window defined by the uprights or mullions.

Old English

A style used from c. 1860, in which tile-hanging, tall chimneys, half-timbering and other details of the gabled vernacular architecture of south-east England are picturesquely combined.

Renaissance

The revival of classical architecture that began in 15th-century Italy and spread through Western Europe and the Americas in the following two centuries, finding distinctive forms and interpretations in different states and regions. From c. 1830 the Italian version was revived in Britain as a style in its own right (sometimes called Neo-Renaissance or Italianate), i.e. as distinguished from the native Georgian classical tradition.

Inside Explore London:

Have you seen: