Duke of Edinburgh

The Duke of Edinburgh still retains some trademark Truman's inter-war features, such as the panelled bar counters with doors for servicing beer engines, and quality woodwork throughout.

A beautifully crafted piece of 1930s suburban pub architecture by Truman’s, it has three storeys and is faced with attractive thin red bricks which have also been used for the window linings and mullions. Inside you can now perambulate through the whole pub but can still get a good sense of the way it was originally arranged. The public bar was at the front and more simply appointed than the more upmarket rear areas, e.g. a match-board counter in contrast to the panelled ones behind – note all the counters have doors for servicing the original beer engines as was usual in Truman’s 1930s pubs. The light-coloured oak woodwork is typical of the colouration and quality of what they put into their pubs, as is the distinctive advertising lettering in the bar-backs, the chequerwork spittoon trough in the rear area, the use of mirrors over the fireplaces and the (now disappeared) sliding screen that would have split the rear parts. The inglenook with Tudor-arched fireplace and adjacent seating is particularly attractive.

Unusually cellar access for deliveries is inside the pub with access via two wooden doors underneath one of the mullioned windows. A notable feature is the extensive rear garden approached down a passage at the rear and which shows how inter-war pub builders had in mind the need to encourage not just hardened drinkers but couples and families who might enjoy sitting out in good weather.