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, [1] and to be undisturbed by the bar staff. [2]
Pubs with surviving snob screens include:
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 under 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).
A pub is a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in the late 17th century, to differentiate private houses from those open to the public as alehouses, taverns and inns. Today, there is no strict definition, but CAMRA states a pub has four characteristics:
The George Inn, or The George, is a public house established in the medieval period on Borough High Street in Southwark, London, owned and leased by the National Trust. It is located about 250 metres (820 ft) from the south side of the River Thames near London Bridge and is the only surviving galleried London coaching inn.
The Bartons Arms is a public house in the High Street in the Newtown area of Aston, Birmingham, England.
The Salisbury is a Grade II* listed pub on Grand Parade in Harringay, North London.
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.
The Lamb is a Grade II listed pub at 94 Lamb's Conduit Street, in the London Borough of Camden, London.
Tetley's Brewery(Joshua Tetley & Son Ltd) was an English regional brewery founded in 1822 by Joshua Tetley in Hunslet, now a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire. The beer was originally produced at the Leeds Brewery, which was later renamed the Leeds Tetley Brewery to avoid confusion with a microbrewery of the same name.
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.
Crocker's Folly is a Grade II* listed public house at 24 Aberdeen Place, St John's Wood, London. It was built in 1898, in a Northern Renaissance style, and was previously called The Crown. Geoff Brandwood and Jane Jephcote's guide to heritage pubs in London describes it as "a truly magnificent pub-cum-hotel" with "superb fittings", including extensive use of marble. The architect was Charles Worley.
The Victoria is a Grade II listed public house at 10a Strathearn Place in Bayswater, London, England. 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 Warrington is a Grade II listed public house at Warrington Crescent, Maida Vale, London W9 1EH.
The Crown and Greyhound is a Grade II listed public house at 73 Dulwich Village, Dulwich, London. It is classified by CAMRA as a pub with a regionally important historic interior. The pub is affectionately referred to by locals as "The Dog", and sometimes as "The Dog and Hat". The pub is particularly noteworthy for its post-war connection to the British poetry movement. It is described by Nikolaus Pevsner as, "a cheerfully cross gabled pub".
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 Red Lion is a disused public house on Soho Road, in the Handsworth district of Birmingham, England.
The Champion is a 19th-century public house in Wells Street in the Fitzrovia area of the City of Westminster, London. It is notable for the presence of stained glass windows and a snob screen, a Victorian feature preserved to the present day in only a few pubs.
The New Beehive Inn is a former pub in Bradford, England. It was built by Bradford Corporation in 1901 to replace an existing public house of the same name that they had purchased in 1889 and demolished to widen a road. The corporation intended to run the pub itself but instead let it out and sold it in 1926. It has since been run by a number of brewery companies and individuals. The pub contained many features dating to its construction and a significant refurbishment in 1936 and was described by the Campaign for Real Ale as "one of the country's very best historic pub interiors".