Crown & Greyhound, Dulwich

A large and much-frequented establishment built as a pub-cum-hotel around 1900 to designs by busy pub architects Eedle & Meyers. The symmetrical exterior is worthy of a good look for such details as the decorative plasterwork, cast-iron lamp standards and light brackets. The character has changed greatly inside but on the left hand side a couple of screens remain from the days when there would have been a multiplicity of rooms. In this area there were bars described as being for ‘the lower class of customer’ (no such problem today in well-heeled Dulwich). What is now the main bar area was originally known as the saloon and to the right of this, and originally separate from it, was the panelled coffee room. The restaurant used to be a billiard room and at the back left was a skittle alley. There are some good details of around 1900 remaining in terms of etched glass with the names of some of the former rooms, a good bar-back with plenty of decoration and, over the partition between main bar and former coffee room, some re-sited snob-screens. But don’t miss the lavish tall friezes and the impressive ceiling decoration. Also pretty mosaic flooring on the left-hand side from a former corridor. The counters, by contrast, are quite plain.

Other Heritage Pubs with snob screens are Bartons Arms, Aston, Birmingham; Prince Alfred, London W9; Lamb, London WC1; Posada, Wolverhampton , West Midlands; Starting Gate, London N22; Crown, London N1; and Bunch of Grapes, London SW3.