Pub Heritage Queen's Head
Greater London West - Cranford
Three star - A pub interior of exceptional national historic importance
Listed Status: II
123 High StreetCranford
TW5 9PB
Tel: (020) 8897 0022
Email: thequeensheadcr@gmail.com
Website https://www.queens-head-cranford.co.uk/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/QHcranford
Real Ale: Yes
Lunchtime Meals: Yes
Evening Meals: Yes
Public Transport: Near Bus Stop
Bus: Yes
View on: Whatpub
This sprawling roadhouse pub, built in 1931 by Fuller’s, has a three-room interior that is exceptionally well preserved.
Two rooms – a public bar and a saloon – are separated by a central servery, and both are wood-panelled to half-height. The woodwork beneath the bar counter appears to be original. Leaded windows still have original 1930s mock-medieval metal clasps. Oak doors to the toilets are original and still have huge mock-medieval metal hinges and handles. (All toilets were updated with modern sanitary ware in the 2015 refit.)
The spectacular third room, the “Saloon Lounge”, is reached via a very short corridor, and its lofty proportions take the breath away as you step into it. It resembles a baronial hall with a high and open timber roof, and is reminiscent of a similar rear room at the Junction (formerly the Windsor Castle) in Battersea. At the rear of the saloon lounge is a small area, originally a store, which was brought into pub use in c.1977, which is the date of that area’s panelling and false timber joists.
There are original brick fireplaces in all three rooms, the central one being the grandest, having an attractive design which features four concentric brick arches, and being situated within an inglenook with a small fixed bench at either side. A rare concession to modern trends is the grey-painted panelling in the Gents toilet; mercifully this annoying habit hasn’t spread to the rest of the pub. A photo on one wall shows the pub that was on this site before it was demolished to make way for the current building.
The only significant change to the public spaces has been the creation of a connection between the public bar and saloon at the front of the pub.
Outside includes an arched entrance, with 1930s gates, through which small cars (and possibly even a few horse-drawn vehicles) would once have passed. The roof of the outhouse adjoining this (possibly once a garage or a stable) is now eye-catchingly covered in green moss. A stone carving of Queen Elizabeth 1st adorns the exterior – might it have been rescued from an earlier incarnation of this pub?
The original Queens Head dates back to 1604 and purports to be the first pub in England to be granted a spirits licence (a piece of imaginative thinking, one suspects!).
The Queens Head was rebuilt by Fullers about 1931 in a loosely Neo-Tudor style with red brick and some half-timbering. This was a high-quality job and the interior is very little altered, making it one of the best survivors of its time. It consists of three main parts with the public bar on the left, separated from the saloon on the right by the servery. Then, at the rear on the right, is a third room with a tall open timber roof and which aims to give a sense of an old baronial hall. The only significant change to the public spaces has been the creation of a connection between the public bar and saloon at the front of the pub.
The public bar has half-height fielded panelling, exposed timbering and brickwork above, and a fireplace of exposed brickwork. The gentlemen’s and ladies’ lavatories either side of the fireplace have their original entrance doors, with vertical grooving, and what may well be original copper-plate signage. All toilets were updated with modern sanitaryware in the 2015 refit. The saloon is of a comparable size and style, although the fireplace is somewhat grander and is set within an inglenook, with narrow fixed benches to either side. The counter is larger than that in the public bar: as with the latter, the glass shelf or gantry is a modern insertion, in this case set on coupled square piers. The gents' lavatories have their original door, with vertical grooving.
Off the saloon is a small passage – lined with fielded panelling, but an open window Kitchen is now accessed from this point – leading to a large room which is the principal component of the pub’s south wing. This rises up to the wing’s pitched roof, and has an exposed timber ceiling of Tudor inspiration. It is named the saloon lounge on the plans of 1977. It has an original fireplace with a curved brick hearth, the half-height fielded panelling is largely original. At the rear of the saloon lounge is a small area, originally a store, which was brought into pub use in c.1977, which is the date of panelling and false timber joists. Lots of original oak doors.
The original Queens Head dates back to 1604 and purports to be the first pub in England to be granted a spirits licence (a piece of imaginative thinking, one suspects!).
