Description

937/0/10041 LONGWOOD GARDENS
21-OCT-03 Barkingside

The Doctor Johnson Public House with
linked Lester and Co estate agents,
formerly off-sales, and including pub sign

II
Public House and linked shop for off-sales, now estate agents' office. 1937-8 by H Reginald Ross. Brown brick with cement render details over narrow tiled plinth, hipped tiled roofs and high brown brick stacks. The main block of the building is almost square, but presenting a curved corner to the crossroads, and a longer range down Longwood Gardens. The main entrances, under bowed porches, lead to a public bar and saloon, with a private bar with its own entrance on the corner between and a central servery, which also serves a rear lounge. Walls and gates to the side connect the pub to the adjoining estate agents office.

Moderne style exterior with horizontal-paned metal windows to upper floor, all with casements, set in banded brickwork under high parapet and rendered cornice band. Broader sill band at storey level. Larger casements between brick mullions to ground floor. On either side, the entrances to the public and saloon bars have glazed timber double doors, and toplights with circular mouldings, behind bowed porches with lotus leaf capitals and steel balustrades. Above, casement windows in rendered surrounds with console brackets and, at parapet level, relief panels depicting Doctor Johnson made by Arthur Betts. Door to snug is similarly double, glazed, with a toplight having the same circular motifs, but set back behind fluted cement-rendered architrave. Rear elevation similar, but with single-storey range set forward that has glazed French windows under rectangular undecorated toplights.

The interiors survive remarkably completely from the late 1930s. Central servery with figured panelled bar front, and original back bar with horizontal light fixing, all set under lower ceiling below a deep cornice that runs around all the principal bar spaces forming a trabeation to the ceiling. Dado panelling with similar figuring continues the line of the bar. Built in bench seating to public bar. Lounge bar is set within a fluted alcove, a motif repeated to one side of seating area. Entrance to Saloon bar in glazed timber surround. The Saloon fireplace is set in a stone and timber surround with a stone hearth; tiled surrounds to fireplaces in the other bars.

The former off-sales is now an estate agents, similarly in brown brick with a hipped roof, and with three-bay glazed frontage under deep fascia that extends across glazed timber door to side, and to extra bay on right return. Interior not inspected. Off-sales were an extremely important part of 1930s public house design, and this example is special in having a well-preserved separate off-sales establishment so that one did not have to go inside the pub itself. Linking brown-brick walls with wings and double gates attach the former off-sales to the Doctor Johnson.

Also of interest is the sign to the front, a concrete post with hanging sign depicting Doctor Johnson, of importance in attracting custom as the pub is slightly set back from the road.

The Doctor Johnson was built to serve the large new estates being built at Barkingside in the late 1930s. It is exceptional for the survival of its plan-form and its fitting; a model pub of its era. The survival of the off-sales shop and signpost are an integral part of this rare ensemble.

Sources
LB Redbridge Building Control Plans
Architects' Journal, 24 November 1938

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27087189

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)