The Beech Public House

Reasons for Designation

The Beech Hotel is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * The exterior is striking with restrained Art Deco styling and distinctive 'Marmo' cladding and detailing * It retains original signage and original windows etched with the company name and logo * It retains its original floor plan and a high proportion of original internal fittings and fixtures, including bar counter and back, flooring, seating and tiles in company colours * It is a rare surviving example of its type

Details

LEEDS

714-1/0/10112 TONG ROAD 14-APR-10 8 The Beech Public House

II Public House, rebuilt 1931, for Melbourne Brewery by Garside and Pennington. MATERIALS: red brick with marble 'Marmo' cladding and detailing.

PLAN: Two storeys with a narrow frontage and extended to the rear, utilising pre-existing domestic rooms. One room (the Vaults) extends across the front, with two further public rooms behind to the left, and side entrance and toilets to the right. Domestic quarters occupy the first floor. The building extends further to the rear left, with the rear right occupied by a yard. There are tall chimneys to each side.

EXTERIOR: The main elevation has brick to the first floor and white and green Marmo cladding to the ground floor. The entrance at the centre has an original door with small-paned glazed panel and rectangular overlight, set in an Art Deco style doorcase in white Marmo cladding with stepped pilasters and architrave. The central bay above breaks forward and rises in a pediment topped with white Marmo cladding. There are two small windows in this bay, each with a 6-paned toplight and single light below. There is a single large window to either side of the door with original etched glass featuring Melbourne Ales and the company logo, and a window above of 10-over-1 panes. The roof line is hidden behind a pediment that steps down from the central bay, with matching Marmo dressings. The name Beech Hotel is carried in relief lettering over each ground floor window. Each corner of the frontage is chamfered, with a narrow window to each floor and a continuation of the green and white cladding on the ground floor. To each side the cladding continues as far as a chimney stack, and contains a large mosaic panel with the name Melbourne Ales in brown on yellow. The right return has two entrance doors, one a side entrance to the pub and the other to the private first floor quarters. The four first floor windows, of varying sizes, are all top-opening with small panes above and a single pane below. The five ground floor are 2-pane, and that nearest the front has etched glass similar to the front. The left return has one side entrance to the former off-sales, with one window to the front and two behind with etched glass. A further three windows on the ground floor have plain glass. The five first floor windows are similar to those on the right return. The left side projects further to the rear than the right, with a blank rear wall, while to the right side is a door to the yard and two first floor windows.

INTERIOR: The front door opens to a lobby with angled sides to an inner door. The walls are glazed with etched glass above and green and white patterned tiles below. Inside is the main bar, the Vaults, which stretches across the width of the building with a servery at the rear. The original bar counter has a panelled wooden front with rounded corners. The bar back fittings are also original with a matching decorative motif to that on the bar front. The counter top is later. Fixed seating around the edges of the room, with bell pushes behind, is original, as is the timber fire surround and the encaustic tiled floor. A door to the rear right leads to a half-panelled corridor and side entrance which has a small lobby with terrazzo floor and green and white tiled walls. To the left of the bar is a short passage formerly leading to the off-sales door at the side. Behind the Vaults room leading off the corridor is the Smoke Room which has original fixed seating and timber fire surround. Behind the Smoke Room is the Club Room, an elongated room with a vaulted ceiling, original coving, fixed seating and timber fire surround. To the right of the Smoke Room are the Gents toilets with original green and white wall tiles. The first floor was not inspected.

HISTORY: There has been a public house on the front part of the site from the mid-C19, while the range to the rear was occupied by housing until the early C20. Plans submitted with the proposed reconstruction of the pub in 1931 show that the internal arrangements previously incorporated a flagged Vaults room with bar and a smoke room, both at the front, a kitchen, sitting room, brew-house, wash house and more kitchens to the rear, with stairs in almost every room indicating that they were probably single dwelling units. The 1931 reconstruction by Melbourne Ales provided the layout as it is today, with the later addition of ladies' toilets, the loss of fireplaces and hearths and the insertion of a glazed panel between the smoke room and club room. The Melbourne brewery was taken over by Tetley's in 1960 which preserved its character as a 'Joshua Tetley Heritage Inn'. More recently it was taken over by Punch Taverns.

SOURCES: English Heritage; Pubs, Understanding Listing, 1994

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The Beech Hotel is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * The exterior is striking with restrained Art Deco styling and distinctive 'Marmo' cladding and detailing * It retains original signage and original windows etched with the company name and logo * It retains its original floor plan and a high proportion of original internal fittings and fixtures, including bar counter and back, flooring, seating and tiles in company colours * It is a rare surviving example of its type

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

507162

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Other
English Heritage, Pubs: Understanding Listing, 1994,

End of official list entry

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