Village Tavern, Larkhall

A popular drinkers' pub in a late 19th-century sandstone building, last fitted out during inter-war times in island-bar style. It little-altered state is due to being owned by former licensee Margaret Hodge's family for 60 years until 2000.

The counter now painted brown has ribbed panels and pilasters apart from the front section, which may indicate the loss of a jug and bottle. The entrance lobby has doors on the left and right with a wall between them that has a modern window at the top so it is not clear how it would have worked if there originally was a jug bar.

The modest free-standing island gantry consists of two tall upright bays with a walkway for staff through the middle and is mainly original - certainly the uprights are old and probably the top canopy as well but the shelves look to be made of much newer wood i.e. replacements of original shelves. Look for the old till drawer that was in use up to 2000. Sensibly, fridges have been placed under the bar counter leaving the gantry intact.

The walls are panelled to picture rail height all around the room painted cream and there are decorative cornices and ceiling roses painted brown. There are original fixed slatted wooden benches (now with cushions) lining the left and right window alcoves (there is no sign of any partitions that could have created snugs at the front left or right) and down part of the left side - all are painted brown. There is a 1920s fireplace on the left with an old wood surround but modern tiled interior. Original fixed L-plan timber tables on cast-iron supports also survive.

In both front windows are narrow 'Murray's Famous Ales' window screens and on the wall is an old 'Wm Murray & Co's India Pale Ale' mirror; sadly, a Murray's mirror in a three part frame with Sir Walter Scott's print on the left and a Robert Burn's print on the right is no longer on the wall of the bar. The partitioned area in the far right corner is a spirits cupboard, and has a '5' on the door.

In 2006 the rear part of the pub was altered and former toilets, a tiny snug used for storage and a passageway on the left to the toilets, which also acted as a snug, was replaced by new toilets on the right, a new pool room on the left which has an old 'Wm Murray & Co's India Pale Ale' mirror, and the doorway to the former toilets is now a cupboard.