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Long narrow pub built in 1631 and rebuilt 1879. Originally a coaching inn called the Royal Mail, a previous name (Murrays) was based upon the licensee's mother's name! It then became the Grand Union which closed early in 2013, interior gutted. Premises now re-opened as a bar with a focus on gin, but has draught beer, albeit all on keg. Note nearby Highbury & Islington is also a rail station on the London Overground.
Historic Interest
Grade II listing:- Public House. Presumably 1879. Brick, stucco and polished granite, the roof obscured by parapet. Three storeys, one-window range. Ground floor consists almost entirely of wooden pub front set back between pilasters of marble and polished granite, the set-back covered with late C20 tiles. The wooden front consists of two pairs of doors flanking a semi-circular bay in the form of an oriel window, the doors panelled and glazed with a decorative arcade which runs across the bay; the bay has scrolled cresting with palmette ornaments; panelled toplights run across the whole front. First and second floors framed by brick pilasters with simple cornice to first and dentil cornice to second floor. First-and second-floor windows flat-arched and tripartite, the parts separated by columns. Stucco panels between the first- and second-floor windows carry shields surrounded by foliage, the shields inscribed with dates and monograms: 'AD 1631/RMT/HWC/AD1879'. Cornice with central pediment in front of parapet. Inside, the bar counter survives in whole or part, and parts of the bar-back: wooden pilasters surporting embossed gilded frieze and cornice, bracketed shelving and four panels of engraved and faceted glass. However the original plan of small partitioned bars and a long passage down the south side has been lost.
Hoxley & Porter, London