Builders Arms, Teddington

A delightful street-corner pub just off Teddington High Street, it was rebuilt, almost certainly, in Edwardian times and shows a marked contrast with earlier, Victorian ornateness. Outside the ground floor is distinguished with brown glazed brick, a band of blue-grey mottled faïence and some attractive designs in the window frames. The pub consists of two rooms. The public bar, entered off Field Lane, is by far the smaller of the two while the saloon stretches back along Bridgeman Road. There is a modern arched cut-through between the two rooms. Both of them have some delightfully detailed glazing with pretty green leaves and other motifs, though, sadly, the main windowpanes are now plain glass.

Both rooms also have beamed ceilings which were popular at the time to create a kind of ‘olde worlde’ effect. The public bar has a rather unusual semi-circular-shaped counter and an individualistically detailed bar-back. The counter in the saloon is straight and, with the bar-back, looks as though it might be an inter-war replacement. A prominent Tudor-style arch spans the width of the saloon. A charming detail not to be missed is the Art Nouveau-style spear-like recesses carved in the panelling which are probably a unique feature in pub ornamentation. There are two original fireplaces.