Old Wheatsheaf, Enfield

In 1905 this pub – then a beerhouse - changed hands and, judging by the embellishment, was probably remodelled soon after that. It has a particularly attractive ground-floor frontage with a couple of curved bay windows and brown glazed brick facing. The etched windows with their leaded heads (best appreciated from inside) come with delightful representations of a wheatsheaf and Art Nouveau-style flowers. The ‘jugs and bottles’ department (named in the door glass) has gone but the pub still has two entirely separate rooms.

The bar on the right was originally a small public bar and tap room behind (and off sales on the left) but the partition separating the two was removed in 1954 and the partition separating the off sales was removed later. The public bar sports a very fancy fireplace and mirrored overmantel: the tiled strips with stylised tulips are, again, typically Art Nouveau. The bar-back is plain and may be work of the 1930s (some lower shelves replaced by fridges) while the plain match-board counter is a replacement installed in 1986 and the mighty pot shelf is modern. Fixed seating doesn't look that old but the low baffles could well be. Small Victorian fireplace on the left in the former Bottles & Jugs area.

The pub was extended to the left in 1934 by buying the properties next door to demolish them and build the new saloon bar - a single-storey room which has extensive three-quarter-height match-board panelling. Here the fire surround is much plainer than next door. The bar counter front looks to have been added to an older counter as the top looks old; the gnar back fitting looks more modern than old. The pub was probably called the Old Wheatsheaf to distinguish it from another Wheatsheaf in Baker Street situated at the other end of Enfield Town.

Historic information from A-Z of Enfield Pub's Part 1 by Gary Boudier (2000)