The Princess Louise is a public house situated on High Holborn, a street in central London. Built in 1872, it is best known for its 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 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] As it is considered so historically significant even the men's toilets, with their marble urinals, are listed. [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 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 is also notable for having 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]
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, England, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs. With just over 150,000 members, it is the largest single-issue consumer group in the UK, and is a founding member of the European Beer Consumers Union (EBCU).
Samuel Smith Old Brewery, popularly known as Samuel Smith's or Sam Smith's, is an independent brewery and pub owner based in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England. It is Yorkshire's oldest brewery, founded in 1758, and one of three breweries in the town. Samuel Smith's, which is an unlimited family-owned company, produces a range including bitters, stouts, porters, lagers, and fruit beers, and is known as a highly traditional and somewhat eccentric operator of around 200 pubs due to its continued use of dray horses, bans on music and mobile devices, and low beer prices.
The Bartons Arms is a public house in the High Street in the Newtown area of Aston, Birmingham, England.
The Lamb is a Grade II listed pub at 94 Lamb's Conduit Street, in the London Borough of Camden, London.
The Cittie of Yorke is a grade II listed public house on London's High Holborn, and is listed in CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. The pub is owned and operated by Samuel Smith's Old Brewery.
The National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors is a register of public houses in the United Kingdom with interiors which have been noted as being of significant historic interest, having remained largely unchanged for at least 30 years, but usually since at least World War II.
The Ye Olde Mitre is a Grade II listed public house at 1 Ely Court, Ely Place, Holborn, London EC1N 6SJ.
The King's Head is a Grade II listed public house at 84 Upper Tooting Road, Tooting, London SW17 7PB.
The Flask is a Grade II listed public house at 14 Flask Walk, Hampstead, London, on the site from where the trade in Hampstead mineral water was run, and which is mentioned in the eighteenth century novel Clarissa. It has been owned by Young's Brewery since 1904.
The Museum Tavern is a Grade II listed public house at 49 Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London.
The Flying Horse is a Grade II* listed public house at 6 Oxford Street, Marylebone in the City of Westminster. It was built in the 19th century, and is the last remaining pub on Oxford Street. The pub is on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.
The Viaduct Tavern is a Grade II listed public house at 126 Newgate Street, Holborn, London. It was built in 1865 and the interior was remodelled in 1898–1900 by Arthur Dixon. It is on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.
The Prince Alfred is a grade II* listed public house at 5a Formosa Street, Maida Vale, London, W9. It was first listed as grade II in 1970, and upgraded to grade II* in June 2022 for its lavish interior.
The Bell Inn is a pub at the village of Aldworth, in the English county of West Berkshire. It won CAMRA's National Pub of the Year in 1990, and received the accolade again for 2019. It is a Grade II listed building and is the only pub in Berkshire with a Grade II listed interior. It is also on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.
The Malt Shovel is a Grade II listed public house at Potter Street, Spondon, Derby. The pub is known for its unmodernised period interiors and internal design.
A snob screen is a device found in some British public houses of the Victorian era. Usually installed in sets, they comprise an etched glass pane in a movable wooden frame and were intended to allow middle class drinkers to see working class drinkers in an adjacent bar, but not to be seen by them, and to be undisturbed by the bar staff.
The Commercial is a public house at 210-212 Railton Road, Herne Hill, London. It is cited in 'The CAMRA Regional Inventory for London' as being one of only 133 pubs in Greater London with a pub interior of special historic interest, most notably for its, "Original counters, bar-back, fireplaces and much fielded wall panelling" dating from the 1930s. In July 2016, Lambeth Council designated The Commercial as a locally-listed heritage asset of architectural or historic interest, being described as a, "Two-storey Neo Georgian style inter-war pub with a three-part convex façade which follows the curve of the building line".
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.
