Crown Inn, Frome

This late 17th-century building houses a classic small urban pub with two small rooms either side of a central servery. The tiny entrance lobby has doors bearing the names of the rooms beyond. Straight ahead is the off licence, on the left is the public bar, on the right the smoke room. The latter in its present form was the result of amalgamating two small rooms in the 1990s (when the present counter was no doubt installed): at the front the area was a small snug where the old dado paneling with old benches remain along with a good Art Deco-style stone fireplace (modern hearth). The 1990s saw the removal of part the wall to the rear was removed to join up with the room behind (this has already had an extension in the 1930s, hence the Tudor-style stone fireplace): the dado paneling is post-war.

The off licence is a rare survivor being a very tiny space behind with twin doors and possessing a Victorian counter front and old panelling from floor to ceiling. The hatch to the servery may be from the 1960s along with the small red Formica shelf. The off licence is still in used from time to time but with cigarette papers being the biggest seller! The public bar has a pink and cream lino-tiled floor, a 1950/1960s counter of ribbed hardboard painted a beige and red Formica top. There is also a stone interwar Tudor fireplace for a coal fire. The bar back fittings seem of the 1960s with their red Formica shelves. Outside gents’ and ladies’, the former little altered in many decade with a flagstone floor and old urinal.