This pub is not only a grade II listed building, it is also on the Campaign for Real Ale’s (CAMRA) Local Inventory as having an interior of Local Historic Interest, and the description is as follows: “A wonderfully opulent pub forming part of a block with shops and houses, designed by Thomas Verity and built in 1888-89 for Watneys Brewery. It is faced with banded red brick and pink terracotta. There is an oriel corner turret with a copper dome. Throughout there is lots of original mahogany panelling including a fine carved bar back, and on the right a carved wood surround fireplace with row of three bevelled mirrors and above a large plain mirror set at an angle. The panelled bar counter is no doubt also original. The doorway between the main bar and a smaller room on the right has pillars with decorative capitals. Lots of good-quality window screens around the exterior. Unique in a pub is the double-faced clock hanging within a mahogany beamed ceiling in the centre of the main bar. Ornate plasterwork ceiling. Note the mosaic floor in the doorway on right-hand side and the glazed screen between the right-hand room and staircase to a restaurant upstairs which is wood-panelled but with modern bar fittings.” The listing description is as follows: “Corner block of houses, shops and public house. 1888-89 by Thomas Verity. Banded red brick and pink terracotta, slate roofs. Franco-Flemish and Jacobethan details. 4 main storeys, basement and gabled or dormered attics; part of Mount Street elevation of 3 main storeys only. Almost symmetrical composition 5 major bays wide to South Audley Street, outer bays slightly advanced above ground floor, oriel corner turret with copper dome, asymmetrical but similar return of 4 bays to Mount Street with pair of gables to Nos. 27-28. Shop fronts set in segmental arched openings, they and the doorways flanked by enriched pilasters carrying an entablature surmounted by an iron balustrade across both elevations. Upper floors have through storey canted or flat fronted oriels with mullioned transomed lights, and brick pilaster strips between the window bays. Terracotta cornices and sill bands to each floor, the façades crowned by cornice and parapet above which rise the elaborate Franco-Flemish gables. Prominent chimney stacks. Survey of London; Vol. XL.”

Note also the glorious multicoloured ceiling designed by Phyllida Barlow which was installed during the pub’s recent refurbishment.

WhatPub link: WhatPub/Audley

The Audley featured on the Compact and Bijou: Evening Crawl of Mayfair on 18 April 2012, and features on the Up West: Evening Pub Tour of Mayfair and Soho on 9 August 2023.