Angel

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Greater London West - Hayes End

Three star - A pub interior of exceptional national historic importance

This pub is currently closed (since 26/09/2018)

Bought by Hayes Muslim Centre but planning permission for conversion to community centre refused.

Listed Status: II

697 Uxbridge Rd
Hayes End
UB4 8HX

Tel: None

Real Ale: Yes

Lunchtime Meals: Yes

Public Transport: Near Bus Stop

Bus: Yes

View on: Whatpub

An elegant neo-Georgian roadhouse rebuilt for Fullers in 1926 to designs by well-known pub architect T.H. Nowell Parr (cf. the Forester, West Ealing [84]). It was extended at the rear right in 1937 and also in about 1970 when a verandah was incorporated on the west side. The original layout of four bars, plus an off-sales between the two front ones, survives very much intact, clustering round the central servery which contains a publican’s office . This lack of change may be due to the fact that the licensee remained in post from 1967 right through to 2010. At the front left is the public bar which communicates with a rear room (the double doors have gone) known as the Meal Room where, no doubt, guests staying in the letting bedrooms would have eaten. On the right is the saloon (labelled lounge on its rear door). To its rear is the Luncheon Room. There are some 1920s fireplaces while the beamed ceilings are a typical feature of Parr’s work. There are doors in the original counters. There are a few modern additions such as the tawdry canopy over the public bar counter and the counter in the Meal Room (these seems like work of about 1970).
A neo-Georgian inter-war roadhouse on the south side of the busy Uxbridge Road leading out of Hayes. It was re-built in 1926 by architect T H Nowell Parr for Fuller’s Brewery - a picture of the previous pub hangs in the saloon. It was extended in 1937 at the rear on the right-hand side to create a function room. The former off-sales still survives in the middle of the symmetrical facade, between the two front bars. Remarkably all four original bars survive, clustered round a central servery. When the pub was built, they were all relatively small and of not dissimilar size. The little-altered interior is, no doubt, mainly due to the fact that it was run by the same licensee from 1967 to 2010. This is probably the reason why it has a little-altered interior and has been referred to as 'the pub Fuller's forgot.'

The front saloon bar accessed from the right hand door with a glazed vestibule entrance has as its key feature a large brick original fireplace (sadly painted white). This popular room retains its original quarter circle panelled counter with outward-opening cupboards – only seen in the London area they are apparently for inspecting pipework and beer engine maintenance. Sadly, canopies have been added over the counter here and elsewhere. The walls are covered in plaster with uprights regularly spaced along the dado and painted brown to look like half-timbering topped by a crenellated top rail. Some of the loose furniture must surely be inter-war.

The front public bar accessed from the front left-hand door with a glazed vestibule entrance has another original quarter-circle panelled counter with cupboards that can still be opened (the canopy above is a c.1970 addition). The original bar-back fitting has a doorway for staff in the second of four bays and the third bay has seen some change. The original fireplace remains and is mostly of cast iron, grained to imitate hardwood but it has a modern interior. The walls are covered in plaster with uprights regularly spaced along the dado and painted brown to look like half-timbering topped by a cornice of genuine wood. The original metal window openers in this room still work and are used in hot weather!

Through a double width doorway (original doors lost) leads to what was originally the Meal Room and did not have a bar counter when built. On the right is a sealed up door that has a hatch in it – beyond the wall is a passage that includes a dumb waiter, which brought down meals cooked in the first floor kitchen and they were handed through the hatch. This room also retains its original fireplace of cast iron and painted brown to look like wood but with a modern interior and the walls have more of the plaster uprights on the dado and painted brown to look like half-timbering topped by a crenellated top rail. The bar counter here looks like it was added in the 1960s. The gents' urinals date from 1926 and when built customers had to access by leaving from the rear left door and entering from the rear i.e. outside roofless gents’! The gents’ WC and ladies’ were added probably post war.

The off sales remains with its door in the centre front of the pub flanked by what were once display windows; its bar counter is intact and it shares the front left-hand bar-back fitting but is now used as a storage area. There is an attractive glazed timber screen spanning the servery between the front public bar and facing the lounge. Beyond the bar back fitting the original manager’s office is still in use today – it has a glazed door and a series of windows overlooking the bars, including a special cashier’s window through which cash was passed back to be placed in the safe which is in situ but not used as they have lost the key! Another original fitting is the fire extinguisher situated at the top of the cellar steps! In the cellar is the original hand wound hoist which is still in use today for bottling-up (taking crates of bottles from the cellar to the bar to place on shelves). The dumb waiter which connects to the cellar below and former kitchen above remains.

The rear right room, originally the luncheon room, is now the function room. When built in 1926 it was the same size as the rear left ‘meal room’ and it had no bar fittings. Then in 1936 plans were drawn to extend backwards the luncheon room by some 50%: this was flanked on two sides by a verandah (as the earlier, smaller luncheon room had been). The extent of the original 1926 building was the large pillar on the right. The room was then remodelled in c.1970 - it was extended to take in the footprint covered by the verandah: square piers are left over from the 1930s walling, presumably for structural reasons to save rebuilding the entire roof and with (it seems) the Crittall casement windows reset. The 1937 extent of the room is clearly visible by looking at the ceiling – the stage is situated in the c.1970 part. The whole room has fielded panelling to dado height and that on the rear wall could be from 1937. There is an excellent Art Deco colourful leaded glass roof-light in the 1937 part of the ceiling. The canted bar counter here was added in 1937 and also includes doors that can still be opened. The mirrored bar-back fitting also dates from 1937. There is another 1926 fireplace mostly of cast iron and painted brown to look like wood but it has a modern interior. The ceiling here (and also in the other rooms) have exposed beams (now all painted in a uniform colour) and this arrangement continues into the extended part of the function room, showing an attempt to match the existing work that would not be expected in post-war work.

On the first floor in the licensee's private quarters the original kitchen at the rear left (now the living room) still retains its fitted cupboards and the drying rail with pulleys that was used to dry table cloths etc. Also in this room is the Georgian-style built-in sideboard that contained crockery, cutlery etc. that resided in the meal room when the pub opened – it has the lead lined drawer for the storage of wine. On the first floor hall is the pianola that was originally in the public bar and they still have some scrolls. On the front left upstairs is the Masons Room, which has been used by the local lodge every Monday night since the pub opened in 1926! It was also used by the Buffaloes until the 1960s and has the Roll of Honour for ‘The Industrial Lodge No. 177’ on the wall and the regalia cupboard with both doors having the gold lettering of the founder in 1913 and the list of ’Certified Primos’. This room has a 1930s Art Deco tiled fireplace and original Bakelite plugs and switches but recently the original door with its peep hole has been replaced by a modern ‘fire door’. The room is available for meetings.

On the right hand side of the pub there was a club room when the pub was built in 1926 but it was demolished in 1937 when the luncheon room was extended – the land is still owned by Fuller's and let to store fairground rides.

It is possible to arrange a tour of the pub at quiet times if arranged in advance with the licensee.
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