Shipwrights Arms, London

Three-storey pub of brick built in 1884 with a ground-floor wooden exterior of late C19 or early C20. Note on the exterior a number of stone carvings picked out in cream on a deep blue background and in particular the crouching Caryatid with outstretched arms above the right hand corner doors.

The left hand doors originally led to a vestibule entrance lobby and on the left hand wall is a splendid painted tiled panel of around 1900 showing shipwrights (arms and all) at work beside a choppy River Thames. A steam tug tows barges down the river. The painting is signed by Charles Evans & Co., a west London firm of tile and stained glass manufacturers.

The interior consists of a central island bar, originally this would have been surrounded by at least three separate compartments (the multiple outside doors would each have given access to a separate drinking space.) but the partitions having been removed many years ago. Markings on the floor on the right show where one partition was situated; also, there is a change in the bar top on the rear left indicating where another one might have been situated.

The counter front looks inter-war with the rear section being a fielded panelled style whereas that on the front is upright panels but is also of a canted style. The island gantry-style back fitting is wholly modern. In a disused passage, now part of the route to the gents (now downstairs) has a colourful tiled dado and a tall door with inter-war frosted glass in a floor to ceiling screen.