This website is currently in beta. If you wish to go back to the current site please click here. To provide feedback or find out more about this site, please click here.
116, Foregate Street, Chester, Chester, CH1 2HH
Riviera Centre, Torquay
11-13 April 2025
Magna Science Adventure Centre, Magna Way, Templeborough , Rotherham, South Yorkshire, S60 1FD
12-15 February 2025
One of the most prestigious beer competitions in the world.
Units 3-5, Heathfield Industrial Estate, Heathfield Street, Elland, HX5 9AE
Westgate Brewery, Westgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1QT
116, Foregate Street, Chester, Chester, CH1 2HH
Let us know your thoughts by leaving a score
We were informed that the pub would be closed for refurbishment for a few weeks from August 12th but have now been told that it will remain open; the planned refurbishment has been postponed until next year.
An impressive corner pub retaining many late-Victorian fittings, notably a series of framed waterclour paitings of local scenes, several full-height timber and etched glass partitions, an old circular bar counter with a surviving section of snob screens and a number of baffles.
A visitor reports - "A visit on Friday evening (03/02/23) revealed: Salopian - Shropshire Gold, Fullers - London Pride, Vocation - Heart & Soul, Willy - Crafty Fox. However, all the pumps were adorned with 'Coming Soon' tags. If they can't get a cask beer up and running at this time of the week, are these pumps permanently tagged thus?" On a subsequnt visit in March 2024 - "Of the various pumps on show only one was available, Fuller's London Pride. Doom Bar & Adnams Southwold were badged but not available."
Built in 1875, the year Alexandra Palace opened. It became the Starting Gate in 1858 when a racecourse was started in Alexandra Park. Much of the interior dates from an 1899 refit, including partitions radiating from the island bar, the different bits served by six external doors. Modern side room with pizza oven. Now M&B, ex-Allied, Spirit, Orchid.
Historic Interest
Grade II listed:- Public House on a corner site. Built 1875 (the same year as the opening of Alexandra Palace) as the "Palace Cafe"; a public house by 1896; refitted internally 1899 by Richard Dickenson of-St John Street, Adelphi. Yellow stock brick with red brick dressings. Public House frontage with paired pink granite pilasters on a black granite plinth. 6 windows, 1 Window to chamfered angle and 2 windows to St Michael's Street. 3 storeys and cellars. Each street with a depressed arch entrance to recessed doorway with double-panelled and part-glazed doors flanked by panelled and engraved glass screens. Windows have round-arched glazing and top panels of geometric pattern. Fascia with cornice. Upper floors have rusticated brick strips at angles and bays. 1st floor 2-pane sashes brick architraved with keystones and timber open pediments. 2nd floor sashes with gauged brick heads and continuous brick dentil cornice sill band. similar cornice above to coped parapet. To left a lower 2-storey, 3-window extension with late C19 shopfront and central pedimented chimney breast rising through upper floors. Roundel on chimney breast dated 1875. Interior has cast iron columns with capitals and many original features including screens with engraved glass, part of a snob screen, chimney pieces and an overmantle, lincrusta decoration and a series of framed panels containing water-colour paintings, mostly pastoral views but one of Alexandra Palace. Originally known as the Alexandra Palace Hotel, it became the Alexandra Palace and Railway Hotel when the Great Eastern Railway station was opened in 1906 and in 1958, when a racecourse was opened at the bottom of the southern slopes, the Starting Gate.
Two star - A pub interior of very special national historic interest
Listed status: II
An impressive two storey corner pub with a considerable amount of its rich, late-Victorian furnishings remaining.
The building started life as the Palace Café and opened in 1875, the same year as Alexandra Palace, which still dominates the skyline to the west. It had turned into a pub by 1896 and was known as the Alexandra Palace Hotel; in1955 it became the Starting Gate in honour of the nearby race course. It was refitted by the obscure architect Richard Dickenson of John Street, Adelphi, in 1899 – no doubt the date of much of what we see today.
This is a large, airy pub with high ceilings and large windows. There is an ample central servery with a good original panelled oak counter, albeit one crudely overlaid with a modern top. At one time, there would have been numerous separate bars, and two impressive full height timber and etched glass partitions remain from the original scheme, plus several baffles (cut down partitions). A timber glazed arch above the servery spans two mighty, fluted cast-iron Corinthian columns (one has been denuded of its decoration). There’s a bank of snob screens on the counter on the left-hand side of the pub. On the left-hand wall is a series of framed watercolour paintings, possibly Edwardian and mainly of pastoral scenes, but including one of Alexandra Palace.
From the St Michael’s Terrace entrance, marked with mosaic flooring, there was formerly a corridor leading to the erstwhile saloon bar at the rear. A striking full height timber and etched glass partition divided it from the body of the pub. Thankfully, this is still extant, but the corridor now houses a staircase leading to the floor above. The aforementioned bar displays a fine wooden fireplace supporting a plain mirror in a decorative overmantel.
In the front part of the pub is a modicum of matchboard panelling. Of the vestibules which remain, that at the front beyond a mighty depressed arch is most impressive. It’s a full height affair, with a copious amount of etched glass, and lacks only its inner doors. The area to the left of the pub has been brought into use in recent times, but it in no way detracts from the ambience of the historic interior.
Now a modern-atmosphere eating and drinking establishment, some considerable vestiges of this pub’s rich, late-Victorian furnishings remain. Interestingly, this pub didn’t start life as a pub but as the Palace Café, opened in 1875, the same year as Alexandra Palace. It turned into a pub by 1896 and was refitted by Richard Dickenson of St John Street, Adelphi, in 1899 – no doubt the date of much of what we see today. Inside is a central servery from which compartments once radiated and the six outside doors show these were numerous and therefore small. The surviving screen panels are formed of timber and etched glass, the latter embellished with the small birds and swirling foliage that never failed to delight late-Victorian pub owners and customers. The panelled oak bar counter is Victorian as are the mirrors in the central stillion (although the structure itself is modern). The timber arch above, however, is Victorian, and spans two mighty, fluted cast-iron Corinthian columns. Another item of interest is the mosaic flooring marking out a former corridor leading from the St Michael’s Terrace entrance. You will also find a well preserved bank of snob screens sitting on the counter.
Other Heritage Pubs with snob screens are Bartons Arms, Aston, Birmingham; Prince Alfred, London W9; Lamb, London WC1; Posada, Wolverhampton , West Midlands; Bunch of Grapes, London SW3; Crown, London N1; and Crown & Greyhound, London SE21 but these have been moved.
This Pub serves 2 changing beers and 1 regular beer.
Starting Gate, London
Source: National
Sports TV
Lunchtime Meals
Evening Meals
Family Friendly
Disabled Access
Smoking
Wi Fi
Real Ale
Real Heritage Pub
Member Discount Scheme
Love Cask Beer?
Join CAMRA to support the campaign to access more features plus access to a range of different benefits.
Become a member
