Burlingtons Bar (at the Town House)

Summary

Public house, formerly the basement bar of the St Anne’s Hotel, 1890s with an interior scheme by Craven Dunnill.

Reasons for Designation

Burlingtons Bar of c.1898 is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: a good example of a late-C19 hotel bar interior, with a high quality classical ceramic scheme by Craven Dunnill one of the leading makers of the time;
* Interior survival: both the original simple plan and most of the original decorative scheme are preserved, in what is a largely complete later-C19 interior;
* Interior quality: a high-quality, richly decorated tiled interior scheme of classical style incorporating arcades, moulded panels and mirrors, plain, floral and patterned tiles and doors with entablatures and serpentine pediments;
* Rarity: Burlingtons Bar incorporates a very rare example of a tiled bar front of which there are thought to be only eighteen in Britain.

History

St Annes Hotel was constructed in 1875 and extended in 1898 by the addition of an east wing, whose basement housed a bar called Burlington Bertie. The bar faced onto and was directly related to the railway station, the latter being pivotal to the development of the town as a genteel coastal resort. The tiled interior of the new public house was entirely fitted out by the ceramic manufacturer, Craven Dunnill, including a ceramic bar in one of the firm’s two standard styles: The Red Lion, Erdington, Birmingham and Crown Liquor Saloon, Belfast have the same design. Craven Dunnill has confirmed that the bar interior was manufactured at their Jackfield site. In 1985 St Annes Hotel was demolished but the bar was retained as the basement for the newly built Crescent Pub, later renamed the Town House. After a period of time as a night club, the bar has recently re-opened for private functions as 'Burlingtons'.

The interior of the bar has been placed on CAMRA’s National Inventory of Pub Interiors of Outstanding Historic and Architectural Interest, of which there are 198 entries. It is also recorded on the Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Location Database.

Details

Public house, formerly the basement bar of the St Annes Hotel, 1898 with an interior scheme by Craven Dunnill.

MATERIALS: rusticated sandstone exterior; rich ceramic tiled interior.

PLAN: rectangular bar with entrance lobby oriented north to south, forming the basement of a re-built later-C20 public house.

EXTERIOR: the basement bar fronts St Annes Road West and is a rusticated sandstone, single-storey building of seven bays. To the right there is an arcade comprising three large segmental, moulded window openings with keystones, alternating with two smaller round-arched door openings with similar detailing. Above is a moulded cornice. To the left of the arcade the elevation projects slightly, terminating in a stone band at eaves level; there is a square-headed window opening and a similar entrance with hoodmould over. Ornate fenestration and doors are retained throughout; doors to the arcade have a square-within-a-square design lower panels and glazed segmental upper panels with smaller panes above fitted with etched and studded glass. The main entrance has an identical lower panel and square-headed glazed upper panels.

INTERIOR: entered through original double doors into a small lobby formed of ornate timber partitions to two sides of; the lower parts of these have a square-within-a-square design and the upper parts have a pair of segmental-headed glazed panels, with smaller panes above fitted with etched and studded glass echoing those of the exterior. The north partition may have been slightly modified to allow the panels to open and one of the glazed panels retains original brass bars and fittings. The south wall is richly tiled with an ornate mirrored panel of classical design and original double doors within the west partition give access to the south end of the bar. The interior of the bar is extensively tiled in yellow, brown, green and pink polychrome tiles with some floral motifs; that to the west wall has mostly been lost by the insertion of a large modern opening. There is a geometric tiled floor and arcaded walls with classical moulded tiling incorporating plain, floral and patterned tiles and some with mirrored panels. The original ceiling has been altered with the loss of the diaper pattern to the ceiling visible in an historic photograph. Each of the windows forming the east arcade has a central, horizontal brass bar. There is a long bar running north-south with a cyma-shaped bar front adorned with rich, ceramic decoration with a rhythmic floral design and a marble counter. Two metal plates affixed to the counter overlie two former basins. The original classical bar back is full height and incorporates a pair of scrolled pediments and a range of mahogany fittings in classical forms. Doors have entablatures and serpentine pediments.

The original hotel stone access steps, walls and entrances and decorative piers are excluded from the listing as are other elements of the rebuilt hotel building.

Sources

Books and journals
Brandwood, G, Davison, A, Slaughter, M, Licensed To Sell: The History and Heritage of the Public House, (2011), 141

Websites
CAMRA’s National Inventory of Pub Interiors of Outstanding Historic and Architectural Interest, accessed 12-08-2015 from http://www.heritagepubs.org.uk/pubs/national-inventory-entry.asp?pubid=607
Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society Location database, accessed 12-08-2015 from http://www.tilesoc.org.uk/tile-gazetteer/lancashire.html

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