Army & Navy

This wedge-shaped, red-brick pub was one of many rebuilt by Truman’s in the 1930s to upgrade the quality of their estate and, like the Rose & Crown, Stoke Newington, is a good place to see something of their house style. Outside there are ironwork pub lanterns, a bow-fronted window, and attractive window glass with dimpled panes and pretty, coloured strips. Like the Rose & Crown, the interior displays typical trademarks of Truman’s inter-war fitting and furnishings. There is characteristic advertising lettering (see over the bar-back), brick fire surrounds with small relief panels (in this case a hunter and dog, knight on horseback, and a couple of galleons) and a very distinctive cream-coloured ceiling made up of Vitrolite panels (just as at the Rose & Crown). Originally the pub would have been divided up into a sequence of separate rooms by screens but these have now all gone. However, you can still see two different treatments in the bar counter detailing which signify separate drinking areas (the usual distinction being plain for the public bar, smarter for the rest). The bar-back is also original.