St Johns Hotel, Hull

Classic street-corner local originally built circa 1865 of brick and remodelled by the Hull Brewery Company in 1904/5. The Edwardian layout – with its plain entrance corridor widening into a small lobby, corner public bar, back lounge and side smoke room – survives intact today as do many Edwardian features. Local protests saved the St John’s from damaging alteration in the 1990s and the pub was statutorily listed in 2003 following a successful application by CAMRA.

The L-shaped public bar has a two-sided Edwardian panelled bar counter where the left hand section appears to have changed as there is a slight indent and the frontage is more modern in style. (Possibly the exterior door in this area led to an off sales in the past?). The ornate bar back fitting has a series of columns with decorative capitals, old shelves but the tiles are modern and possibly some shelves lost to add an optic panel? A fridge has replaced some of the lower shelving. The fixed seating is old but looks to date from inter-war (or even post-war?) times. Look for the pipework for gas lighting in the main bar.

The rear smoke room retains good Edwardian fixed seating around most of the room with draught screens at both ends. The wood surround of the fireplace is original including large brackets holding up the mantelshelf but the interior including the tiles is modern. The counter in this small room looks to be a modern one possibly replacing a hatch post-war? The room has and moulded plaster coving. The games room has fixed seating that looks to date from inter-war (or even post-war?) times, has lost it fireplace and there are two doors indicating it was two small rooms prior to 1904. Opposite the rear door, on the left side of the passageway that runs from the front door to the rear, is the hatch / doorway with flap across it from the back of the servery for service to the games room. Philip Larkin - well known poet, who lived around the corner in Pearson Park, was a regular visitor to this public house.