On reflection
Among the rampant office blocks and stores of Victoria Street stands the Albert, a pub of 1862 built in solid yellow brick with dressings in red brick, trimmings in stucco, and a big, decisive cornice. It belonged, apparently, to the Artillery Brewery, which was just across the road and built in a similar style. In the late sun of an autumn afternoon, its brickwork glows.
The pub exterior has its fair share of the kind of decorative elaboration the Victorian pubs and their owners went in for, and the aspect of this that particularly caught my eye was the engraved glass. It's said to be original and is a cut above a lot of pub glass, which bears arabesques and curlicues of a fairly standard and formulaic nature. At the Albert we have trails of foliage, flowers, fruit, and some wonderful birds. I particularly liked the one above, though I'm not sure what species it is or whether the image is at all ornithologically accurate. My main efforts on the sunny afternoon when I passed were in trying to photograph it without including too many reflections. It's difficult, on a bright day, but I offer my efforts anyway, because I think the glass is good, if the photography is not.
And in a way, the reflections are part of the point. A pub is a social building, that wants both to include you in its image, but also to stop you looking in, to give the drinkers inside some seclusion from the street. What's more, the reflections also include some of the pub's other decorative touches. There's a mirror image of some of the ornate ironwork in my photograph below and you can see the iron "Albert" sign, shadows of iron scrolls, the reflection of the building across the road, and glimpses of some interior lights. It might be a confusing picture, but even in the sun and even with all these reflections, the decoration of the glass still shines.
Pubs historically had to deal with the stigma of taking men's wages for booze, instead of allowing the men to feed and clothe the family. Pubs were also where men could get together with other men for frivolous activities - drinking and socialising. Not religious and not family-focused.
ReplyDeleteSo if I was a pub in Victorian times when the temperance movement was hotting up, I would want to be as beautiful as possible. Engraved arabesques, curlicues, trails of foliage, flowers, fruit and birds. Fresh pot plants and vines. Bar maids in classy clothes. Decent seating.
The Albert seemed to get it right.
Foreign visitors coming out of Victoria Coach Station - "Excuse me, where can we find a typical British pub?" Does this one fit the bill - I believe, as not a London expert, I directed them here in any case. What features create the sort of "typical" pub visitors are looking for?
ReplyDeleteThis building lifts my spirits- even before I lift any spirits! So warm looking. I love buildings with decorative bits like these.
ReplyDeleteHels: Thank you. I sometimes wonder with Victorian pubs whether they are trying to look respectable or defiantly excessive and indlugent! In this case, though, with the birds and so on, I think you are spot on, as you often are with your comments on the social history behind the buildings.
ReplyDeleteWho knows, Joseph, what people think of as the typical English pub. One man's low dive in another man's authentic watering hole. But I don't you think you did badly if you sent them here. Apparently it even contains parliamentary memorabilia (including an old division bell), so there's added value!
ReplyDeleteGretchen. Thank you so much! The brickwork does look beautifully warm in the afternoon sun - but even on a dull day the decoration is striking.
ReplyDeleteI think I quoted correctly saying "British pub" - you make it "English pub". Please don't confuse the two! We also have pubs (though losing more every week) this side of Offa's Dyke. Unfortunately heavy rain and shortage of funds are preventing an immediate visit to one. And I know there are lots in Scotland! Sorry to be picky! Caerphilly and Newport have Irish Pubs, if they are not to be included - bare boards and Republican posters on the walls. No turf fire - we can't get the turf on this side of the Water...
ReplyDelete...Sorry about that. It has been one of those weeks. As the posters in South Wales used to say: 'It's Brains you want' (with just the one apostrophe, if I remember). They have Irish pubs in Prague too, and it's not unheard of to overhear young men on stag parties preparing to get off the flight at Vaclav Havel Airport and saying to one another, 'Right, come on. I know where's there's a really good Irish pub.' Travel, you see. What it does to the mind...
ReplyDeleteJust fab. But what a lot is going on above the actual pub. Considering there would obviously be rooms for the landlord and his family, and maybe other staff, but that still leaves a lot of room for other things to be going on. Which assuredly did so!
ReplyDeletePeter: I wonder, could there have been public rooms – rooms for functions, singing rooms, whatever – upstairs? I don't recall pubs laid out like that, but I have limited experience of big city boozers.
ReplyDeleteI just love these windows. Sashes would make any building look like a little English house. It's great that manufacturers still make them look like these. We've got sashes by Klassen
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