London Pubs Group

Campaign for Real Ale

Campaign for Real Ale

Inn 1888

21a Devonshire Street,
W1G 6PD

Although this pub is not a listed building it is on the London Regional Inventory and the description is as follows: “Now a smart, small, single-bar pub, the great feature here is the tiling and mirror-work lining the inside walls. As the present name helpfully implies this red-brick building dates back to 1888: the ground floor has a larvikite plinth and red granite pilasters. The other feature that can be spotted outside is the pretty stained and painted glass borders to the lower parts of the windows which include representations of Michaelmas daisies: in the heads of the windows is delicate filigree piercing. The tiled walls have a yellow ochre-coloured dado, above which is a proto-Art Nouveau frieze, and, then, on the upper part of the walls, a series of panels divided by wooden pilasters. Each panel has an ornamented mirror set within a wooden frame. The colouration of this upper tiling is rather different from anything we have encountered elsewhere and is a warm mixture of beige, buff and red. Near the side entrance is a splendid advertising mirror promoting the wares of Pocock & Pearce of Pancras Road who tell us they are the sole proprietors of Paddy Liqueur Irish Whisky and ‘The Nurse’s’ brand of bottled beers. There is a little vignette in the centre of ‘Paddy and Polly’ cavorting about having partaken, it would seem, in liberal measure some of Messrs Pocock & Pearce’s products!”

Inn 1888 featured on the Auntie's Boozers: Evening Crawl of Fitzrovia and East Marylebone in December 2008.