Summary
Public house built in around 1939 for Courage & Co brewery.
Reasons for Designation
The Admiral Vernon public house, 141 Broad Street, Dagenham is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a well composed and neatly detailed neo-Tudor design for the Courage & Co brewery, a leading pub builder of the inter-war period;
* for the quality and completeness of its original internal fittings to the distinct bar rooms, central servery and publican’s offices;
Historic interest:
* as a rare, almost completely intact example of an estate pub bearing the influence of the improved pub movement, giving a tangible sense of how such pubs would have looked and operated in the 1930s.
History
The Admiral Vernon was built for Courage & Co brewery on the south-eastern fringe of the London County Council (LCC) Becontree Estate in Dagenham. Becontree was the largest of all the LCC’s out-county estates of the inter-war period, laid out to rehouse people displaced from London’s East End by clearance after the war. Built under the direction of LCC Chief Architect George Topham Forrest, the estate consisted of 27,000 new homes, built on 3,000 acres of compulsorily purchased market gardens and fields in the Essex parishes of Barking, Dagenham and Ilford. The first homes were built on Chitty’s Lane in 1921 and by the time of the official completion ceremony in Parsloes Park on 13 July 1935, the estate was home to a community of 120,000. The Admiral Vernon was one of several pubs built to serve the estate, completed by March 1939 according to Essex Quarter Sessions records, taking over the license from an earlier pub in the district of this name. Pubs had an important place on the new Becontree Estate, becoming the main social centres in a context where community buildings were ‘almost non-existent until many years after the estate was completed’ (O’Brien, C, Cherry, B, Pevsner, N, p140). Examples of new pubs at Becontree, including the Roundhouse on Lodge Avenue (1936, by A W Blomfield) and the Cherry Tree on Wood Lane (1933, by C C Winmill and F G Newnham), were at the vanguard of ‘improved’ pub design in the 1930s; a movement driven by the efforts of progressive licensing magistrates and breweries who sought to design pubs along ‘reformed’ lines, with better facilities to lift the pub’s reputation in society and broaden its appeal.
It is probable that the Admiral Vernon was designed by the architect H M Kirby, who was responsible for a number of Courage & Co pubs in the 1930s, including the stylistically similar Eagle and Child (completed by 1938, Brentwood, Essex) and the Surrey Commercial Dock Tavern, subsequently renamed ‘The Aardvark’ (built 1933, Rotherhithe, London). The Admiral Vernon was built in the popular neo-Tudor, or ‘Brewers’ Tudor’, style of the period and exemplifies important tropes of pub improvement in the 1930s. This is notably reflected in several features, including the well-appointed bar rooms with plenty of floorspace given over for seating (thought to be less conducive to excessive drinking), the flexible floorplan with folding screens for the function and games rooms, and the efficiently arranged central servery and publican’s offices. The solid, fielded-panel timber fittings throughout, along with the decorative foliate plasterwork and neo-Tudor detailing were part of the ambition to foster a genteel atmosphere, which was intended to broaden the pub’s social appeal.
The Admiral Vernon has seen relatively little change since completion in the late 1930s. Save for the removal of two screens, one to the central private bar and another to the games room, the original plan arrangement remains intact. The off-sales shop is understood to have closed in the 1950s or 1960s and was serving as a flower shop until recently. It is now used as storage space for the pub.
The name ‘Admiral Vernon’ refers to Edward Vernon (1684-1757), a naval officer who rose to the rank of admiral in 1745. Vernon may have been regarded as an appropriate dedicatee for the pub as he was credited in 1740 with introducing a form of diluted rum for the sailors under his command in the West Indies, which gained the name ‘grog’ in reference to his nickname ‘Old Grog’ (so given for the coats of grogram cloth he was known for wearing). As an admiral, Vernon issued a series of anonymous pamphlets attacking the Admiralty and he was consequently cashiered in 1746.
Details
Public house built in around 1939 for Courage & Co brewery.
MATERIALS: brick with cream faience cladding to the ground floor and rendered with applied timbers to the upper portion of the central bays. Plain tiles with copper sheeting to the roof.
PLAN: splayed corner-plot plan with a forecourt to the junction of Broad Street (west) and Morland Road (south) and a small garden yard to the rear (east). The interior is divided into distinct bar areas with a servery and two publican’s offices at the centre of the plan. A single-storey former off-sales shop is adjacent to the north and a garage is to the east. Residential accommodation occupies the two upper storeys and there is a cellar below, accessed from the central servery.
EXTERIOR: built in the popular 1930s neo-Tudor (or ‘Brewers' Tudor’) style, with key stylistic tropes demonstrated in the applied half-timbering, leaded casement windows, Tudor arch openings, and the numerous tall, clustered chimney stacks. The canted three-part, symmetrical composition of the façade to Broad Street consists of a recessed middle section with a central gable framed by a pair of clustered chimney stacks and flanked by two projecting gable-fronted wings. Attached to the north wing is a single-storey former off-sales shop and, to the east end, a single-storey function room and a detached garage. Faience cladding is applied throughout at street level. The doors and windows to the distinct bar rooms are all in their original positions, which, from left-to-right, served what appear to have been the public bar, private bar, saloon bar, and a rear function room; this entrance marked-out with a faience Tudor arch embellished with Tudor roses and foliate patterns to the spandrels. There is applied half-timbering to the first floor and the central gable front to the second (attic) storey. The brick gable-fronted ends of the two wings have central oriel windows, with copper sheeting to their hoods and risers, which are embossed with the Courage & Co brewery cockerel emblem. The windows throughout are leaded casements, with the bar room windows integrating coloured leaded lights to their upper sections. The lamps to the entrances are later replicas.
The rear elevation is of a simpler form, built entirely in brick with steel external stairs down from the north end of the publican’s accommodation to the roof of the single-storey games room projection. Leaded casements feature throughout the rear elevation. There are part-glazed sets of doors out to the rear garden from the games room, the servery, and the function room.
INTERIOR: The interior as it is now configured consists of three principal bar rooms; a public bar to the left, a central saloon bar, and a function room (or lounge) to the right. On the left is the public bar which has two distinct areas; the rear section having been a games room, formerly divided by a folding partition screen of which the top section remains (presumably having matched the complete example that survives in the saloon bar). The public bar and games room has three-quarter height panelling throughout and a decorative plaster frieze with decorative hop garland detailing bordering the ceilings both rooms. The original bar counter remains, stepping into the room with curved corner sections. There is a terrazzo trough around the base, a fielded-panel front, and an original counter top. The bar back has a series of wooden shelves set between leaded glass panels (giving borrowed light to the publican’s office), with several cupboards with panelled fronts to the lower section and the inner face of the bar counter. In the rear part of the room there is a counter screen with leaded glazing to serve the formerly distinct games room. Adjacent to this is a dart board casement, integrated as part of the panelling. Two original timber fireplace surrounds (now blocked) also survive, one to the public bar and another to the games room. The dividing wall between the public bar and the central private bar retains a low service door. The women’s WC from the public bar has original wall and floor tiles. The men’s WC has original urinals and also retains its wall and floor tiles.
The central saloon bar was originally two rooms, with a small private bar on the left side, marked by the remaining upper part and supports of the partition screen. The original bar counter remains with a terrazzo trough around the base, a fielded-panel front, and original counter top. The bar back is of fielded panelling with barley twist detailing. In the lower part of the bar back, fridges have replaced half of the original shelving. There is an original tiled fireplace with a Tudor arch timber surround (with a modern stove installed) next to the folding screen. The room has three-quarter height panelling and a decorative plaster frieze with further decorative hop garland detailing. Behind the servery there remain two original publican’s office areas with original panelling, doors, and leaded and frosted glazing to the servery and rear corridor.
A complete folding partition screen divides the central saloon bar from the rear function room, with original signage to the ‘saloon bar’ retained beneath the leaded-glass panes. The original bar counter with its terrazzo trough, fielded-panel front, and original counter top occupies the west side of the room. The bar back is of fielded panelling, matching the saloon bar, with fitted shelves. The room has three-quarter height panelling and a decorative plaster frieze in common with the above-mentioned rooms. A stage has been added at the east end of the room. A men’s WC with a lobby is accessed from both the function room and saloon bar, retaining original doors with leaded glazing, its urinals, and floor and wall tiling. The fixed bench seating throughout the pub is modern.
The cellars, garage, former off-sales shop, and the upper-floor publican’s apartment were not inspected.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: a freestanding timber signpost stands to the front of the pub forecourt and a simple brick wall marks the garden boundary to the rear (east) passage.
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 30 June 2022 to correct typos in the text
