A Victorian pub with secret snugs and a rumoured tunnel.
This watercolour captures The Argyll Arms on Argyll Street, Soho, its red granite pilasters and curved timber-and-glass frontage opening onto an interior of mahogany panelling, etched glass, and a vibrant red Lincrusta ceiling.
Built in 1868 on the site of an earlier 18th-century pub, the Argyll Arms was remodelled in 1895 by architect Robert Sawyer for proprietor E. Bratt, creating the layout that defines it today. Three small snug rooms, separated by mahogany and etched-glass partitions, sit at the front, designed so Victorian drinkers of different social classes could occupy the same pub without seeing one another. I wonder how you know what class you are?
The pub takes its name from John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, one of the Duke of Marlborough's leading generals, who owned the land and built Argyll House on the opposite side of the street between 1735 and 1750. The pub is Grade II* listed and appears on CAMRA's National Inventory of Heritage Pubs, recognised as one of the best late Victorian pub interiors in London.
Interesting facts...
A rumour persists that a secret tunnel once connected the pub to the Duke of Argyll's mansion, where the London Palladium now stands I assume it led to the upper class bar?
In 1900, magistrates ordered the removal of several of the pub's snob screens after it emerged that prostitutes were using the partitioned-off areas as cosy nooks for entertaining clients, a scandal that reshaped the pub's interior.
The pub's red Lincrusta ceiling is a rare surviving example of this Victorian wallcovering, made from embossed linseed oil-based material that mimicked carved plaster at a fraction of the cost.
Argyll Street itself was laid out by the 2nd Duke of Argyll in 1736, replacing his own house with a residential street designed by architect James Gibbs. Notable residents of the street have included William Roy, pioneer of the Ordnance Survey, writers Washington Irving and Germaine de Staël, and botanist Joseph Banks, born there in 1743. William Pitt the Elder, future Prime Minister, married his wife Hester at her lodgings in Argyll Street in 1754
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Location: 18 Argyll Street, Soho, London W1F 7TP
