Pub Heritage Duke of Buckingham
Greater London South West - Kingston
One star - A pub interior of special national historic interest
Listed Status: Not listed
104, Villiers RoadKingston
KT1 3BB
Tel: (020) 8546 6391
Real Ale: Yes
Lunchtime Meals: Yes
Evening Meals: Yes
Nearby Station: Berrylands
Station Distance: 1000m
Public Transport: Near Bus Stop
Bus: Yes
View on: Whatpub
A three-storey red-brick suburban pub built in the early 1930s by Hodgsons’ Kingston Brewery with many original features inside.
The Hodgsons brewery crest sits prominently above the main entrance, depicting a ‘K’, a tun and the three salmon of the borough arms. A brewery plaque can be found elsewhere on the exterior. A Courage cockerel still sits atop an old post and leans drunkenly to one side - apparently it has done so safely for over thirty years.
The grand main entrance is a semi-circular lobby with two sets of curving double doors leading off it, one set with brass plaques that read ‘Public Bar’. The larger room on the right is an amalgamation of two rooms but retains some separation thanks to a large pillar that contains a fireplace on either side of it. Both rooms contain half-height wood panelling that surely dates from the early 1930s – apart from a small section where an outside door has been blocked up (in the late 1980s) and sympathetic panelling has been inserted to match the older panelling on either side of it. The curving bar counter still occupies its original position, serving both rooms. Above it is an octagonal, leaded skylight. Parts of the central stillion and the wooden fireplace surrounds are original. The additional room beyond the arch in the right-hand room was once a kitchen and before that a store room. 232 words.
A suburban, red-brick pub built in the 1930s by Hodgsons’ Kingston Brewery – named on a cast-iron plaque low down outside about rights of way (Hodgsons ceased brewing in 1949 but continued bottling until 1965). Over the entrance is a shield with the three salmon from the borough arms and a rebus with K and a tun (see picture, left). These features and the general architectural style reappear at the Hodgsons’ contemporary, but larger, Manor pub in Malden Manor (now sadly closed and converted to a Co-Op convenience store).
As you enter you can’t miss the attractive and most unusual curved doors – left to the public bar and, right, to a large room, which is now an amalgamation of two original ones. The outside door to the rear portion has now been blocked off. Perhaps the most notable feature is the octagonal, leaded skylight over the servery. There is also some original work in the fireplace, panelling, counters, parts of the stillion in the centre of the servery and curved cornices to the ceilings. The area beyond the arch in the rear room was once a kitchen.
