London Pubs Group

Campaign for Real Ale

Campaign for Real Ale

Crown

160 Cloudesley Road,
Islington,
N1 0EB

Not only is this pub a grade II listed building, it is also one of London’s Real Heritage pubs (ie it is one CAMRA’s London Regional Inventory of Pub Interiors of Special Historic Interest) and the description is as follows: “A stylish Fuller’s pub for a smart part of Islington with some sumptuous and unusual details. It looks a rebuilding of about 1900 with attractive red-brick detailing and polished, red granite and grey larvikite pilasters. The outside walls are notable – simply thin screens of timber and huge expanses of glass. The lower panels of the windows have fine swirling etched and polished glass and the small panes at the top are also decorated. The large clear panes in the middle no doubt had etched glass originally which would have given a profoundly different character to the pub. The servery sits right in the middle of the pub and was originally surrounded by a series of separate drinking compartments. Fortunately enough survives to get a good sense of how things used to be. Each of the outside doors would have led to its own compartment and a couple of partitions survive. The counter is a fine piece with small panel details, pilasters and a tapering base. It supports a long row of ten ‘snob screens’. There is another unusual two-bay curved screen on one end of the counter which originally held snob screens too. Finally, on the inner walls, don’t miss the pretty frieze with cream and green strapwork decoration and the rectangular ceramic frames – what (if anything) did they contain?”

The listing description is as follows: “Public house. Late C19. Yellow brick set in Flemish bond with dressings of red brick, stone and terracotta; roof obscured by parapet. Three storeys over basement, four windows to Cloudesley Road and three to Cloudesley Square, which are the principal fronts. In the 'Queen Anne' style. Ground-floor pub frontage framed by Corinthian pilasters of grey and pink polished granite. Two entrances in Cloudesley Square, flat-arched with small scrolled pediments over, that to the right no longer used, that to the left having panelled doors and glass engraved 'SALOON BAR'; chamfered corner entrance with scrolled pediment and double panelled doors engraved 'THE CROWN'; entrance in Cloudesley Road altered; flat-arched windows between above panelled plinth, the lower panels of the windows and small toplights having engraved glass; fascia and dentil cornice; red brick quoins to upper floors; first-floor windows segmental-arched with heads of gauged red brick under a linking cornice, while those to the second floor have aprons, sill band and flat-arched heads all of gauged red brick; frieze of gauged red brick with festoons in terracotta panels; dentil cornice; external stack to Cloudesley Square with ogee profile and panels of red herringbone brick; parapet. The interior has features which could be of late C19 or early C20 date, notably panelled dado, panels and frieze of moulded and glazed tile, relief-moulded ceiling, island bar front and glazed screens; but they may be replacement designs in whole or part.”

The Crown featured on the Evening Crawl of Islington in December 2006, and the Rows, Squares and Terraces: Evening Crawl of Islington in August 2011.

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