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12-14 September 2024
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A Grade II listed building and a CAMRA Heritage Pub. A pub has been on this site since 1430,; a coffee house in the C17, the brick cellars may be from this era. However, the main splendour, the rear room, comes from a 1923/4 rebuild as a romantic evocation of Olde Englande. A large cubic clock and bright copper sign stand out above street level; grand entrance doors lead to a long corridor, ornate plaster ceiling with Yorkshire rose bosses. Off the corridor a comfortable lounge; the cellar bar with food servery; and the back bar, a great timber hall with high pitched roof, long bar, carved wooden booths (or carrels), some huge, ornamental vats above of some antiquity and an unusual, triangular island stove, (maybe) from Napoleonic era.
With thanks to Boak & Bailey - Originally a past of the Henekey's pub chain founded in 1831. As the 20th century wound to a close, many old brewing and pub businesses found themselves in trouble. Henekey’s was no different. By the 1970s, the Henekey’s chain was part of the Trusthouse Forte empire. Then, towards the end of the 1970s, Trusthouse Forte began selling off pubs. Samuel Smith snapped up some of the best in around 1979.
https://boakandbailey.com/2023/06/henekeys-long-bar-and-the-birth-of-the-pub-chain/#respond
Historic Interest
Grade II listing:- Location Statutory Address: CITTIE OF YORKE PUBLIC HOUSE, 22 AND 23, HIGH HOLBORN The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority. County: Greater London Authority District: Camden (London Borough) National Grid Reference: TQ 31036 81635 Summary Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. Reasons for Designation Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. History Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details. Details CAMDEN
TQ3181NW HIGH HOLBORN 798-1/102/828 (North side) 14/05/74 Nos.22 AND 23 Cittie of Yorke Public House (Formerly Listed as: HIGH HOLBORN Nos.22 AND 23 Henekey's Public House)
II
Public house. Mostly of 1923-4, probably by Ernest R Barrow, replacing earlier wine shop of G Henekey and Co. Front faced in Portland stone with leaded lights, side and rear elevations of stock brick with wooden windows. Tiled roofs. Neo-Tudor style. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys and cellars. Front symmetrical, divided into 2 vertical units. Ground storey of front with doors at ends, centre with windows above timber base, slightly altered. Above, shallow bay windows left and right rising through 2 storeys and capped with string course carried on ornamental corbels, and then a third storey with single mullioned windows and terminating in parapet with 2 small enriched and shouldered gables. Large clock on ornamental bracket in centre between first and second storeys. INTERIOR: public entrance on right leading into wide passage with 4-centred timber arches and paved with flagstones. Front bar conventional with high panelled dado. Rear bar takes the form of a medieval-style hall running north-south with open timberwork and much dark woodwork, and lit from a clerestory and large bay window along east side. Below clerestory, 3 arches of uneven width with a series of snugs behind. On the west side the bar and above it a gallery on thin fluted cast-iron columns, probably Victorian, supporting casks and barrels of perhaps similar date, and above that again a high passage gallery for access to casks running the length of the room, partly supported from roof, partly by lower gallery and with wrought-iron handrail. Fittings include a freestanding triangular cast-iron ornamental stove fireplace with initials 'TIK', reputedly from Gray's Inn, c1815. HISTORICAL NOTE: an inscription on the fascia reads: 'Established as the site of a public house in 1430'. The present building retains few traces of pre-twentieth century work.
Three star - A pub interior of outstanding national historic importance
Listed status: II
This is one of the great inter-war pubs and draws nostalgically on the traditions of Tudor Merrie England. It was rebuilt in 1923–4 (designer possibly Ernest R. Barrow) to replace a shop owned by Henekey & Co., a famous London wine merchant. The tall, narrow façade, no doubt fossilising the plan of an ancient plot, has elegant Tudor detail. The right-hand corridor leads past the fairly conventional front bar to the key area, a great long, open-roofed baronial hall at the rear. On the right this has a series of drinking booths, which are unique in an English pub of this date (but found in Northern Ireland and, in modern times, imitated at pubs in the Wetherspoon chain). Behind the servery are great vats, said to have been in use until the Second World War for holding spirits and fortified wines. The iron columns supporting the gallery are no doubt Victorian. The triangular stove is believed to have come from Gray’s Inn and to date from about 1815: its flue goes down before going up to exit the building. The brick cellars (open Tue–Fri evenings) are a survival from the previous building. Other fine examples of the Tudor/baronial theme can be found at the Black Horse, Birmingham), and the mighty King & Queen, Brighton.
A truly remarkable pub. It was rebuilt in 1923-4 (possibly to designs by Ernest R. Barrow) and is a self-conscious, romantic evocation of an Olde England. Part of the nostalgic mythology of the world of drinking is the idea of good cheer and company in the medieval great hall or Tudor inn - such is what we have recreated here. Outside in the four-storey frontage we have Tudor detailing in the windows. The entrance is on the right and leads first to a panelled room of the type common in inter-war pubs and which evokes ideas of the late-sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries. The bar counter is a modern addition.
But what really counts is the long bar at the back which seeks to rediscover the atmosphere of the great English timber halls. This amazing room is unlike any other in a British pub. The roof is high-pitched and open, and at either end, at first floor level, are glazed-in upper rooms from which you might imagine the lord of the manor might keep an eye on the proceedings below. In fact the room at the far end is, less romantically, part of the manager's flat!
On the right-hand side is a resplendent three-bay arcade with clerestory windows above. Beyond is an aisle is filled with seven small carrels which serve as drinking booths (there are three more at the rear left); such features are to say the least rare in traditional English pubs (but similar to the compartments which are prominent in historic Northern Irish pubs). On the left-hand side the dominant feature is a formidable array of casks, some of enormous side and evidently of some antiquity (as are the cast-iron columns supporting the shelving). A high-level walkway stretches the length of the room. Splendid triangular stove with a flue escaping under the floor.
The direct connection to the front room is a modern addition - this room has painted roundels of famous figures from history and did have a modern bar counter until it was removed in 2010. The brick cellars from the previous building form the Cellar Bar, but this is only open when food is served so is closed in the afternoons and after 9pm. The special character of this pub is reflected in its being grade II listed. Closed Sunday.
Cittie Of Yorke, London
Lunchtime Meals
Evening Meals
Family Friendly
Disabled Access
Real Fire
Real Ale
Real Heritage Pub
Quiet
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