Pub Heritage Kings Arms
Pub Heritage Group have recently carried out a regrading of Real Heritage Pubs - click here for full details
Tyne & Wear - Sunderland
One star - A pub interior of special national historic interest
Listed Status: II
Beach StreetSunderland, Deptford
SR4 6BU
Tel: (0191) 567 9804
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thekingsarmsdeptfordsunderland
Real Ale: Yes
Nearby Station: Sunderland
Station Distance: 1100m
Public Transport: Near Railway Station (Sunderland) and Bus Stop
Bus: Yes
View on: Whatpub
Within the striking Victorian exterior, you'll find an L-shaped main bar with a notable High Victorian bar-back with decoratively carved brackets and mirrored panels. This has been dated to the 1860s/1870s which would make it very early in terms of surviving pub fittings. The counter is from the same period and also has lots of individual detail while the tiled fireplace and tongue-and-groove ceiling also look Victorian. The placement of the doors, some disused, shows that the space was once divided up. An arch, inserted quite recently, leads to a small room at the back with a Victorian fireplace, half-height wall panelling and a hatch to the bar. Note the rare removable screens in the lower parts of the windows which provided customers with both privacy and draught protection.
A rather remarkable Victorian exterior thanks to the odd stubby wooden shafts and their capitals lining the frontage. The same idiosyncratic High Victorian spirit is found in the aggressively detailed bar-back with its decoratively carved brackets and mirrored panels. Stylistically all this looks like work of the 1860s or 1870s and, if so, is very early in terms of surviving pub fittings in this country but such things are notoriously hard to date since they could often be a decade or two behind the latest fashions. The counter is contemporary and also has very individual details including more decorative brackets.
All this is set in an L-shaped bar with a Victorian tiled fireplace and tongue-and-groove ceiling. Look on the Beech Street side and you will see two disused doors and on Hanover Place side another door as well as the main corner one so there were originally partitions dividing up this space. The rear door on Beech Street was possibly the door for off sales and the present modern rear partition replacing the original partition and with service from the doorway in the rear passage.
The small room at the rear through an arch inserted in modern times (or down passage from other end of the bar) has a Victorian tiled, cast-iron and wood surround fireplace with a mirrored mantelpiece and a hatch to the back of the bar. Half-height wall-panelling throughout. Note the removable screens in the lower parts of the windows: these provided customers with both privacy and some protection from draughts and can be individually removed to increase the light from the windows - very rare. panelled ceiling throughout. The glazed stained and leaded screens are new. Look for three tables with bells in the centre for table service and some fold up seats from Roker Park 1898-1997.
Full Description
All this is set in an L-shaped bar with a Victorian tiled fireplace and tongue-and-groove ceiling. Look on the Beech Street side and you will see two disused doors and on Hanover Place side another door as well as the main corner one so there were originally partitions dividing up this space. The rear door on Beech Street was possibly the door for off sales and the present modern rear partition replacing the original partition and with service from the doorway in the rear passage.
The small room at the rear through an arch inserted in modern times (or down passage from other end of the bar) has a Victorian tiled, cast-iron and wood surround fireplace with a mirrored mantelpiece and a hatch to the back of the bar. Half-height wall-panelling throughout. Note the removable screens in the lower parts of the windows: these provided customers with both privacy and some protection from draughts and can be individually removed to increase the light from the windows - very rare. panelled ceiling throughout. The glazed stained and leaded screens are new. Look for three tables with bells in the centre for table service and some fold up seats from Roker Park 1898-1997.
