Windsor Castle

A well known pub for this affluent neighbourhood, the Windsor Castle is the most complete surviving example of an inter-war version of the survival of Victorian-type drinking arrangements right down to the 1930s. This plain, two-storey building of around 1825 sits at the summit of Campden Hill Road and was refitted about 1933. We know this because in the ‘Sherry Bar’ there is a plaque helpfully explaining that the oak used in that room was felled in the period 1930-32. The 1933 refitting created three small rooms separated by screens on the left-hand side of the property. Also helpful is the fact that the door glass names each of the three traditional rooms in red paint on frosted windows.

The Sherry Bar is entered off Peel Street, the Private Bar is on the corner, while the Campden Bar lies along Campden Hill Road. Perhaps it says something for the upmarket nature of the area in the 1930s that the rooms have fancier names than the usual public bar, saloon, etc. Pride of place goes to the two screens, which create the three rooms very much in the manner of a Victorian public house. The Sherry Bar has fielded panelling on both the walls and on the bar counter, a brick fireplace and, over it, a much yellowed picture of the eponymous castle, and attractive fixed seating. Between the Sherry Bar and Private Bar is a floor-to-ceiling screen with leaded glass panels in the top.

In order to reach the Private Bar you have to crouch to get through the door in the screen, which is only 3 feet 6 inch high. This low service door gave access to pot boys and cleaners as in the past customers would normally enter a particular bar from the street. The Private Bar is also panelled and has a baffle by the door with an iron rod attached to the top and fixed to the wall above the door. There are two sections of attractive fixed seating and the bar counter is of raked matchboard panelling. The screen between the Private Bar and the Campden Bar is only about 5 feet 6 inch high and the door in it to access the Campden Bar is only about 5 feet high.

The Campden Bar has more wood panelling, more attractive fixed seating and a bar counter with raked matchboard panelling. The mahogany bar-back is the sole survivor from the Victorian era. There is some pretty Arts and Crafts door furniture. To the right and opened up to the Campden Bar is a further room on two levels known as ‘The Ordinary’, which may be former private quarters brought into public use at a later date, and has few old fittings. The pub’s name is said to come from the fact that on a clear day Windsor Castle could be seen from it.