Duke of Sussex, Acton Green

Built in 1898 (date on the exterior) by specialist pub architects Shoebridge and Rising. The exterior lobby on the Beaconsfield Road right-hand side of the pub has a mosaic floor and ornamental ironwork containing the name Duke of Sussex across the doorway. On the right-hand wall of this vestibule there is floor to ceiling tiling (but dado tiling and some upper tiles are modern) and in the centre is a panel figure of a girl. The mosaic floor continues into the pub in the form of a narrow passage behind the servery leading to the entrance to the former billiard room, which now serves as a dining room.

In the main bar area, there is a central peninsular bar counter with a semi circular end. This might date from the inter-war period, although it might be older with more recent panels attached to the facing. The top of the counter appears modern. A brass rail was reported to encircle the counter some years ago, but this has recently been removed. There is no real bar back. Remnants of partitions which previously sub-divided the U-shaped space around the bar into four small rooms survive (refurbishments took place in 2002 and 2007, when the pub became a gastropub; it is not known whether the partitions were removed during one of these refurbishments or during an earlier revamp). Plaster has been hacked off the walls above the dado exposing bare brickwork.

The publican’s office with a number of decorative etched and frosted glass panels (one of which has been replaced by a plain glass panel with a transfer duplicating the etched pattern on the other panes) is still in situ, although it is now used as a wine store. There is a good wooden mantelpiece over the fireplace (now blocked off) in the left-hand side of the room. A front entrance vestibule has etched panels indicating Saloon and Lounge with floral decoration. A door which might have been the entrance to a jug and bottle department to the right of the bar has now been closed off.

The former billiard hall/current dining room to the rear is entered through a wide curtain doorway (double doors have evidently been lost) with a carved wooden architrave. It is lit by a spectacular large rectangular skylight, subdivided by cast-iron arched brackets. The skylight has a unique wooden panelled border, carved with brightly painted cherubs and swags. There are other impressive skylights in former billiard rooms at the Boleyn, East Ham E6; and Salisbury, Green Lanes N4 . The room has another good carved fire surround with modern tiles, but a modern servery has been built into the right-hand wall, the walls around which are now faced with modern white tiles and, as in the bar, some plaster has been hacked off the walls elsewhere in the room. There is an attractive doorway into the garden, built into a large, arched French window.