London Pubs Group

Leyton Engineer

265 High Road Leyton
Leyton
E10 5QN

This is the official lunch stop but if you prefer to eat earlier or later, all of the pubs on the tour serve food. This pub is a grade II listed building and the listing description is as follows: “Town hall. Dated 1895. By John Johnson. Red brick, white stone. Slate pitched roofs to parapet. A complex of 3 adjoining buildings fronting High Road Leyton, Adelaide Road and Ruckholt Road. Main block with council chamber to corner of High Road Leyton and Adelaide Road. 3 bays, 2 storeys to High Road Leyton with lower 3 storey, 9 bay wing to left. Rich Victorian Eclectic classical manner. Horizontal stone banding to ground floor. Central Ionic porch to taller block, pedimented with elaborate finial over. Square-headed sashed windows to ground floor; plate glass. Upper storey with 3 blind arcades with inset stone-lined niches and panelled pilasters between rich frieze cornice and decorative gable above and pinnacles to octagonal corner buttresses. Central timber and lead flêche to roof. Lower left hand wing with round-headed windows in continuous arcade to upper storey and 3 storey bay window to left with pediment and pavilion roof. Return to Adelaide Street with similar rich treatment carried into lower rear block, of 2 storeys, the upper blind, and with projecting Ionic entrance. Ruckholt Road front Baroque, 2 storeys, the upper blind, 3 main bays, the central bay with giant rusticated niche rising to become segmental open pediment; entrance below. Interiors not inspected.”

Note the initials of the former occupants, Leyton Borough Council, on the rubber door mat as you enter the pub and the very fine terrazzo and mosaic floor. The pub was formerly operated by Antic Pub Company but, once acquired by Remarkable Pubs, it was refurbished to their usual high quality standard. The largest room on the left-hand side contains the Harry Beck Booth, named after the original designer of the London Underground map, whose work features on the walls.

The WhatPub link is here: WhatPub/Leyton Engineer

The Leyton Engineer features on the A Remarkable Day Out: Daytime Pub Tour of Remarkable Pubs in East London on 14 June 2025.