Kings Arms, Sunderland

A rather remarkable Victorian exterior thanks to the odd stubby wooden shafts and their capitals lining the frontage. The same idiosyncratic High Victorian spirit is found in the aggressively detailed bar-back with its decoratively carved brackets and mirrored panels. Stylistically all this looks like work of the 1860s or 1870s and, if so, is very early in terms of surviving pub fittings in this country but such things are notoriously hard to date since they could often be a decade or two behind the latest fashions. The counter is contemporary and also has very individual details including more decorative brackets.

All this is set in an L-shaped bar with a Victorian tiled fireplace and tongue-and-groove ceiling. Look on the Beech Street side and you will see two disused doors and on Hanover Place side another door as well as the main corner one so there were originally partitions dividing up this space. The rear door on Beech Street was possibly the door for off sales and the present modern rear partition replacing the original partition and with service from the doorway in the rear passage.

The small room at the rear through an arch inserted in modern times (or down passage from other end of the bar) has a Victorian tiled, cast-iron and wood surround fireplace with a mirrored mantelpiece and a hatch to the back of the bar. Half-height wall-panelling throughout. Note the removable screens in the lower parts of the windows: these provided customers with both privacy and some protection from draughts and can be individually removed to increase the light from the windows - very rare. panelled ceiling throughout. The glazed stained and leaded screens are new. Look for three tables with bells in the centre for table service and some fold up seats from Roker Park 1898-1997.