Description

31/0/10436 STATION ROAD
25-FEB-03 Railway Hotel including sign in front
and former off-sales building to west

II

The Railway Hotel. Public house with attached off-sales block. 1931 by A.E. Sewell, for Truman Hanbury Buxton, brewers. Picturesque half-timbered road house.
PLAN: rectangular, with stepped extensions to rear. Arched link to separate building, originally used for off-sales.
MATERIALS: half-timbering, brick-faced ground floor and rear elevations, some stone quoins, tiled roof.
EXTERIOR: Three storeys. Main front with two gables, the right hand part projecting, the upper floors jettied. Central four-centred arch to main doorway, which consists of fielded panels, with grilles to centre; upper lights flank a monogram panel reading TBH (for the brewery). Bay windows to ground floor front. Moulded stone corbels at corners, with carved figures above: that to left shows a man with grapes in his hair, holding a bunch in his hands; that to right shows an old woman with hops in hair and arms. Sun-dial on north-east corner inscribed TRUMANS. Six-light bay window to left hand first floor gable. Three-light window to second floor over main entrance with three panels of heraldic plasterwork: the central panel of a helmet surmounts the date 1931. Three tall brick stacks above roof ridge, with decorative brickwork. North-east side elevation with a large chimneystack with diapered brickwork; projecting entrance porch beyond. Stepped rear elevation with half-timbered projecting gable to right, stepped gables to centre, two lesser chimneystacks. The pub is linked to the off-sales building with a tiled archway carried on timber uprights, the inscription panel within which reads THE RAILWAY HOTEL. The off-sales building (now used as a separate shop) is a deep rectangular structure, with a gable end to the street above a half-timbered elevation to upper floors, with a medieval-style shop front to the ground floor, with a four-light shop window and a fielded door serving the upper floors to the right; irregular fenestration to the upper floors, with a projecting gable with barge boards. Angled doorway; decorative spandrels above with bird and foliage ornament. The courtyard-facing elevation has a shop window to the ground floor, with sun and moon decoration to the spandrels; four-light windows to the upper floors, with a strapwork cartouche between sporting the brewery monogram of THB.
INTERIOR: ground floor only seen. This retains many original fittings, including four-centred arched fireplaces with stone surrounds at each end; fielded oak panelling to 2/3 height of walls and to front of bar counter; canopy to bar counter; behind bar shelves with four-centred arch recesses; chequered tile floor with wrought iron foot-rest to former lounge (left-hand) bar; painting signed E. Court over fireplace in former lounge bar showing original appearance of pub; heavy beams to ceiling. Upper floors thought to include former masonic lodge and luncheon room with hammerbeam roof, situated over lounge bar.
ANCILLARY FEATURES: Pub sign in form of a gibbet, reaching over pavement.
HISTORY: This is an excellent example of a picturesquely conceived interwar road house, designed in a medieval idiom. The architect, A.E. Sewell, was Truman's in-house architect. Plans dated October 1929 were approved in November 1929. The building, located opposite Edgware parish church, is a notable interwar feature of what was to become one of the classic suburbs in Greater London. It exemplifies the modern idea of wayside hospitality, as revised for motor car-borne trade (viz the large car park to rear), but expressed in a highly romanticised style. It is among the best examples of a picturesque historicist road-house in the country.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Railway Hotel at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26388360

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)