British Oak, Blackheath

An imposing early Victorian pub built about 1850 (both 1847 and 1858 are claimed as the date). Three-storey of London brick with a glazed brown brick dado on the ground floor. It has a lovely cast-iron balcony running across the first floor which is supported on iron columns forming a sheltered verandah below. The layout has two large public rooms which are entirely separate (very unusual these days) and require you to go outside to get from one to the other. The public bar on the left is L-shaped and seems an amalgamation of two spaces (see the now-closed double door left of the present entrance).There is a fine Victorian bar-back facing the entrance with vertical, decorated mirror strips at the sides and fine cut-glass panels within the three bays: old counter, now painted blue, and a matchboard dado, now painted ‘gastro-green’. What a pity the plaster has been hacked off in two places to expose the rough brickwork behind (would you do that in your own home?!).

On the right is a large saloon (so named on a big door-plate) which is set partly within the main building and partly within a single-storey block. The glazed brick dado running across the entire frontage of the pub ties the two parts together externally but is certainly later than the original build and may well date from the interwar period. Was the main part of the saloon added on at that time? It’s curious that the counter seems Victorian but that the half-height wall panelling (very ordinary work) and a couple of attractive settles seem interwar. Perhaps this side of the pub was very much smaller and the counter is a relic of that.