Description

Mid 19th century; 1888 and circa 1900 alterations. 2-storey, 3-bay rectangular plan gabled public house with roughly central opening to close and with public house front at left with 6-panelled timber doors to public bar and to former jug bar and with well-preserved pub interior. Front elevation harled and washed; squared sandstone rubble to side; painted margins and raised painted cills. Base course to front and side elevations; deep string course and eaves course to front elevation. Regular fenestration to first floor with bipartite windows to outer bays. 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows; plate glass to pub window. Grey slates; ashlar coped skews; ashlar coped stacks (some with replacement cope) with yellow clay cans.

INTERIOR OF PUBLIC HOUSE: well-preserved Victorian decorative scheme. Lobby at entrance to bar; 2-leaf inner door with stained leaded glass to upper panel, the right panel inscribed JUG BAR (re-sited when jug bar removed). Timber boarding to walls with decorative reeding at regular intervals, with bells still in place; compartmented timber ceiling to main area with timber cornice. Timber panelled and glazed partitions enclosing seating area with decorative finials and some remaining gas light fixtures; timber panelled dado in rear snug. Panelled counter-front with decorative carved scrolls; gantry with spirit casks. Mirror advertising William Whitelaw & Son's Pale Ales to left wall.

Statement of Interest

The Volunteer Arms is a simple but remarkably little altered building with a particularly good survival of the public house interior. The interior retains many of its fine Victorian fittings. Although it is a pub of modest size, the woodwork is quite elaborate - for example in the screens with finials and the scrolled brackets on the front of the counter - suggesting that the pub was prosperous at this date. The lounge area at the rear of the main bar which was originally two rooms dates from 1888 and it seems likely that the interior of the pub was remodelled at that date. Recent removal of the dark varnish on the timber boarded walls has revealed a section of stencilled decoration at the cornice level. This is a very unusual survival and may be contemporary with the 1888 remodelling. The large mirror advertising Whitelaw's Ales is a fine example of a what was called a mirror showcard. Advertisement mirrors like this were widely distributed to pubs by brewers, distillers and wholesalers in the late Victorian period but many have since been destroyed

The whole building including the public house and accommodation to the left of the close and the flat above has been in the ownership of one family from 1858 but map evidence shows that there was a pub on this site before that time. There was almost certainly a building on this site from the late 16th century or earlier, the long narrow shape of the feus in this part of Fisherrow indicating its early origins. Fisherrow was a busy harbour and fishing centre from the Middle Ages and trade was carried on up and down the coast and also with Holland. The 19th century brought increased prosperity with a new W pier constructed in the 1880s, though by this time little was being exported and the main trade was the landing of white fish and some herring.

In 1824 this building is shown much as it is now with a central close and apparently under one ownership. There is evidence to suggest that sometime between about 1830 and 1853 the exterior of the building was changed to its present appearance although the bipartite windows to first floor suggest further changes probably between 1890 and 1910.

Listed as part of thematic survey of Scotland's Heritage Pubs (2007-8).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata IDs Q77780800 Q77780804

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

• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)