Star, Plumstead

A two-storey building of brick and rendered first floor that has recently been painted purple. It was a Charles Beasley of Plumstead pub in c.1910 (taken over by Courage, Barclay & Simmonds in 1963). It is probably Victorian but seems to have been substantially remodelled and refitted in the inter-war years but with one interesting nineteenth century survival, a bar back. Three exterior doors indicate there were at least three (possibly four) original bars. In changes in 2018 a rare screen – barely over head height – that split the two bars fronting Jago Close was sadly removed.

The left-hand side is a single-storey ‘saloon lounge’ (wording in gold on a frosted panel in the left of the two inner doors) and has a vestibule entrance with a terrazzo floor and leaded panels, a parquet floor, three-quarter-height fielded panelling all around the room, a plain skylight and a couple of inter-war brick fire surrounds – all from the inter-war period. The bar counter is an inter-war panelled one with a checkerboard apron around the base and Art Deco-style bar back has some attractive striped glazing but modern mirrors. The bar back was painted a dark blue colour in 2018. Both the gents’ and ladies’ toilets are unchanged with a dado of inter-war tiling, terrazzo floors and part glazed screens.

On the right there is now a L-shaped room following the removal of the screen. The former front right ‘public bar’ (wording in gold on a frosted panel in the two inner doors) has a vestibule entrance with a terrazzo floor and leaded panels at the top. The bar counter is old and was painted a grey-blue colour in recent times but the paint was removed in 2018. The bar back is the same style as the left-hand inter-war one and painted a dark blue colour in 2018. A fireplace was lost in 2018.

The former room on the right hand side has a vestibule entrance from Jago Close with a terrazzo floor, leaded panels and two doors indicating there was another division sometime in the past. This is confirmed by the bar counter in two different styles – the left-hand part is from the inter-war period but the right hand panelled one dates back to Victorian times. It originally reached the rear wall until it was cut back in recent years. There is another similar mirrored inter-war bar back on the left that was painted a dark blue colour in 2018. At the rear is what appears to be a Victorian bar-back, complete with four pretty, flowery narrow mirror strips (note the unusual shallow high-level cupboard in it), and four carved brackets. There was a door where the glazed panel had a star burst and the word ‘Inn” but this was removed in 2017. The plaster has been taken off the wall at the rear of this room.

Note the gas-light fittings – four on the right-hand side and two (with shades) in the saloon lounge. When Arsenal FC (originally Woolwich Arsenal) were playing on Plumstead Common the team used the upstairs room at the Star as changing rooms. There are two rooms upstairs with no old fittings.