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Riviera Centre, Torquay
11-13 April 2025
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In the bustling heart of Soho this narrow corner pub site has been licensed from 1734, with the present grade II listed building dating from 1897 to designs by architect Francis Chambers. An M&B Nicholson's outlet, this is one of Britain's Real Heritage Pubs; it is also reported to have two ghosts and the pub is featured in the Ghost Pubs website. An elaborate mosaic depicts dogs and ducks; the pub name possibly derives from the old-time "sport" of setting dogs on ducks with pinioned wings and timing how long it took for the dogs to catch them. The loser paid for the drinks!
Wonderful advertising mirrors adorn the walls and original light fixtures and marvellous tilework complement the interior. The pub is small and so popular, especially with media people, that it is not just smokers who have to drink outside. The bar has been extended towards the main Frith St door.
The pub gained fame just before the Coronation in May 2023, when the Prince & Princess of Wales visited to hear how the pub was preparing for the Coronation weekend, and to meet pub staff and representatives from other hospitality businesses in the area. Prince William was filmed behind the bar pulling a pint of Kingmaker pale ale, a special Coronation brew.
Historic Interest
Grade II listed, Historic England ref 1264051. George Orwell was a regular here and celebrated in the pub after hearing that Animal Farm had been chosen by the American Book of the Month Club for that issue. His pub choice on that occasion was influenced by the fact that somehow the landlord had got hold of some real absinthe, 135 degrees proof. Orwell, with his dark visions of a surveillance society expressed in his dystopian novel 1984, would no doubt have been fascinated by the mass of camera phones in action during the royal visit of 2023! Now named after the author, the upstairs Orwell Bar can be hired for functions.
Two star - A pub interior of very special national historic interest
Listed status: II
A lovely small (and usually busy) pub, built as a hotel in 1897 to designs by architect Francis Chambers. The exterior has glazed brick upper floors and a carving of the eponymous fauna which appear again in a delightful but sadly mauled mosaic at the Frith Street entrance as well as in the wall tiling. Tiles are an important element in the decoration, lining the back wall of the left-hand part of the pub, and forming the dado and framing two fine advertising mirrors on the right side: interestingly neither promotes alcohol, rather cigarettes and cigars, seltzer and mineral waters (the craftsman, S. Trenner, signed his creations). Originally the pub would surely have had a division between the two very different halves and quite possibly divisions within the right-hand side. It is hard to envisage where the servery would have been: the present one, probably introduced in the postwar period, straddles one of two blocked external doorways: the superstructure on the counter is clearly reused work.
A gorgeous, small and very popular (i.e. packed) Soho pub, it was built in 1897 to designs by the architect Francis Chambers for Cannon Brewery. The exterior has glazed brick upper floors incorporating a stone carving of the animals mentioned in its name (note also the delightful mosaic of the animals at the Frith Street entrance). The ground floor has polished granite and Larvikite facings, which probably date from a 1930s makeover. The interior is also a mixture of Victorian and inter-war work – the former represented by extensive wall-tiling and a couple of large, framed advertising mirrors promoting long-vanished tobacco and mineral water products. The more restrained work of around 1930 is found in the woodwork of the left-hand part. This was also probably the time when the pub was opened up and took its present single-space layout. Its Victorian predecessor would undoubtedly have had several divisions but it is hard to work out exactly how things were. The present servery now blocks a former outside door. Brass-topped tables.
This Pub serves 5 changing beers and 2 regular beers.
Dog & Duck, London
Changing beers typically include: Sharp's - Atlantic , St Austell - Proper Job
Source: National
Lunchtime Meals
Evening Meals
Real Fire
Wi Fi
Real Ale
Real Heritage Pub
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