The Princess Louise is a public house on High Holborn, a street in central London. Built in 1872, it has a well-preserved 1891 Victorian interior, with wood panelling and a series of booths around an island bar. It is a tied house owned by the Samuel Smith Old Brewery of Tadcaster, Yorkshire. [1]
Being located near Bloomsbury, the British Museum and the University of London, it is patronised by academics. [2]
The building is protected by its Grade II* listing [3] [4] and has what has been described as "a rich example of a Victorian public house interior", by William B Simpson and Sons; who contracted out the work. [3] [4] [5] The men's toilets, with their marble urinals, are mentioned in the listing. [3] [4] The pub, which is also listed on National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors, was refurbished in 2007. [6] The pub is unusual in that it retains its snob screens. [6]
In June 2009, the pub was joint winner of the best refurbishment class of the 2008 Pub Design Awards awarded annually by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). [7] Author Peter Haydon included the Princess Louise in his book The Best Pubs in London and rated it No. 5 in the capital, saying it had "possibly the best preserved Victorian pub interior in London". [8]
The pub was operated by Regent Inns from 1990 until 1998, when the lease was taken over by Samuel Smith.
The Princess Louise has been the venue for a number of influential folk clubs run by Ewan MacColl and others, which played an important part in the British folk revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s. [9]
This renowned Sam Smith's pub has undergone a comprehensive redesign which has seen the reintroduction of the original, multi-bar layout, complete with bar doors and snob screens. This has made what was already an interesting and worthy pub even more of a pubgoers' icon. After a six-month closure, this celebrated landmark has reopened in a guise which reflects both its incarnation of over a century ago and the modern customer's wish to drink and chat in a cosy, quiet and private environment. This is one instance in which gilding the lily can actually improve the subject.
