Golden Lion

A prominent late Victorian former Hoare & Co, then Charrington’s pub on a corner-site: its name is proclaimed in raised ceramic lettering. The ground floor is now a single space but its original tripartite structure can easily be traced. Indeed the names of two of the rooms are still visible in bright stained glass above doors on the Pratt Street elevation – Saloon Bar and Private Bar. The latter seems to have been turned into an off-sales judging by the inscription on the door glass possibly in around 1936 (i.e. just after Charrington & Co. bought Hoare's). Part of the screen, with etched glass, separating the private bar/off-sales from what must have been the public bar is still in place, straddling the servery.

The star feature, though, is the Victorian bar back with a scrolly pediment, bevelled mirrors, a dumb waiter, and lots of good detail including two doors with etched glass panes. There is also a panelled bar counter and a chunky Devon marble fireplace. The public bar seems to have been refitted, probably in the 1950s or 1960s, whence the bar back with its Charrington lettering and ply-panelled bar counter. The upstairs club (formerly billiard) room has another Devon marble fireplace and the nearby gents’ are intact with colourful dado tiling and two urinals.