Description

ISLINGTON

TQ3181NE COWCROSS STREET
635-1/77/347 (North side)
Nos.32-35 (Consecutive)
The Castle public house (34-5)

GV II

Includes: Nos.101 & 102 TURNMILL STREET.
Public house at nos 34-35 flanked by industrial or commercial
buildings in Cowcross Street and Turnmill Street. 1865. By
H.Dawson. Yellow brick set in Flemish bond, stucco, and
possibly also stone, roof of artifical slate so far as
visible. Four and five storeys over basement, thirteen-window
range. The pub of five-window range and projecting slightly
between symmetrical wings, the whole front curved in plan, the
outer bays also projecting slightly. The two wings match each
other except that nos 32-33 Cowcross Street has been plastered
over. On nos 101-102 Turnmill Street the ground floor is
stuccoed; flat-arched entrance to right with segmental-arched
overlight set in rusticated surround; the other three
openings, which are slighly altered, have segmental stilted
arches with faceted keystones and paterae in the spandrels;
moulded stucco cornice. Outer window on each floor
round-arched; the rest flat-arched to first floor, and
segmental-arched above with keystones and alternating stone
and brick voussoirs; roundel with cock in low relief below
outer second-floor window. Stucco cornice and blocking course.

The pub has a ground-floor frontage of stucco or possibly
stone with a deep base and paired pilasters to either side
linked by blocks, fascia and cornice over; between these the
pub front consists of a central entrance flanked by two
flat-arched windows of unequal width on either side; slim
fluted columns between entrance and windows, pairs of similar
columns between windows. Upper windows segmental-arched to
first floor, round-arched to second and third floors with sill
bands to first and second floors, bracketed cornice at sill
level to third floor; the central windows a group of three
with broad stucco architrave, archivolts and shallow arcaded
bracketed balcony to central window on the second floor; deep
bracketed cornice; three round-arched dormers with metal
finials rising from the parapet. The only original features of
the interior are the decorative treatment of the beams, and
possibly the ceiling paper.
There is a pawnbroker's sign on the outside of the pub. George
IV granted the landlord here a pawnbroker's license, which
still holds good today, in reward for the loan of money
against his pocket-watch, to pay for his gambling depts at a
Clerkenwell cockfight.
(Historians' file, English Heritage London Division).

Listing NGR: TQ3162881853

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• The Castle Public House at Wikipedia
• The Castle Public House official website
• Wikidata Q27080326

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990