The block of three buildings containing The Tabard

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

(formerly the Tabard Inn) is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

structure in

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Full ...

, London. The block, with a row of seven

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s in its roof, was designed by

Norman Shaw Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...

in 1880 as part of the community focus of the

Bedford Park garden suburb Bedford Park is a suburban development in Chiswick, London, begun in 1875 under the direction of Jonathan Carr, with many large houses in British Queen Anne Revival style by Norman Shaw and other leading Victorian era architects including Edwa ...

. The block contains the Bedford Park Stores, once a co-operative, and a house for the manager. The first floor of the pub building is host to the

Tabard Theatre The Tabard Theatre is a small 96-seat theatre in Chiswick in the London Borough of Hounslow. Close to Turnham Green Underground station, it is situated above the Tabard public house on Bath Road. The Tabard Theatre was licensed and opened for t ...

. The block was most likely inspired by Holborn's 1585

Staple Inn Staple Inn is a part- Tudor building on the south side of High Holborn street in the City of London, London, England. Located near Chancery Lane tube station, it is used as the London venue for meetings of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries ...

, which similarly has a row of seven gables; a further inspiration is the 15th century

Sparrowe's House, Ipswich The Ancient House, also known as Sparrowe's House, is a Grade I listed building dating from the 15th century located in the Buttermarket area of Ipswich, Suffolk, England. In 1980 the building was acquired by Ipswich Borough Council. The buildin ...

, which has strongly projecting bays, gables, and a cornice above a row of shop windows.

Building

Purpose

The block, including no. 2 Bath Road, was built in 1880 by the architect

as part of the communal focus of Jonathan Carr's development of the

; it included the inn, a house for the manager, and the Bedford Park Stores. The block is near the corner with Acton Green, facing

St Michael and All Angels, Bedford Park St Michael and All Angels is a Grade II* listed Church of England parish church in Bedford Park, Chiswick. It was designed by the architect Norman Shaw, who built some of the houses in that area. The church was consecrated in 1880. It is construc ...

, built at the same time as the community's church. The other two community buildings are the

school of art An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-second ...

, a little further up Bath Road, and the club house, on The Avenue. File:Focus of Bedford Park Garden Suburb.png, The Tabard inn and the Bedford Park Stores were among the community buildings meant to form the focal point of Jonathan Carr's

Inspiration for design

A group from the Architectural Association paid a visit in January 1880 and commented that "the buildings will comprise a row or terrace of seven gables, like the old row in Holborn, and will include, beside the stores, a private house for the manager, ndan old-fashioned inn". The essayist Ian Fletcher writes that the row of seven gables mentioned is presumably

, Holborn, but that Shaw probably drew the "heavily projecting bays" from

. That 15th century building, reworked in 1567, has gables and a cornice; it is decorated inside with ornamental ceilings and panelling. File:Norman Shaw's plan for Bedford Park Stores and Hostelry 1879.jpg,

's plan for Bedford Park Stores and Hostelry, 1880 File:Ipswich Ancient House.jpg, The "heavily projecting bays" of the 15th century

File:Staple Inn. ILN 1886.jpg, The "seven gables" of

, Holborn, 1585, as it looked in the 1880s File:Bedford Park Stores (and Tabard) corner view.jpg, The Bedford Park Stores, the manager's house, and The Tabard

Exterior

The 3-storey block containing the stores, manager's house, and pub is built in red brick and

roughcast Roughcast or pebbledash is a coarse plaster surface used on outside walls that consists of lime and sometimes cement mixed with sand, small gravel and often pebbles or shells. The materials are mixed into a slurry and are then thrown at the wor ...

, in

British Queen Anne Revival British Queen Anne Revival architecture, also known as Domestic Revival, is a style of building using red brick, white woodwork, and an eclectic mixture of decorative features, that became popular in the 1870s, both for houses and for larger buil ...

(also called English Domestic Revival) style. The roofs are tiled. Of the seven bays on the front, facing Bath Road, three are for the stores and two each for the house, with recessed

s, and the pub. According to

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

, the Bedford Park buildings were "highly influential" on later suburbs, and were "widely imitated" both across Britain and in the United States. The

architectural historian An architectural historian is a person who studies and writes about the history of architecture, and is regarded as an authority on it. Professional requirements As many architectural historians are employed at universities and other facilities ...

Gavin Stamp Gavin Mark Stamp (15 March 194830 December 2017) was a British writer, television presenter and architectural historian. Education Stamp was educated at Dulwich College in South London from 1959 to 1967 as part of the "Dulwich Experiment", then a ...

comments that

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

pub architecture was a "vulgar trade", mainly a matter for specialist architects such as Shoebridge & Rising who for example designed the nearby

Duke of Sussex, Acton Green The Duke of Sussex, Acton Green is a public house, opened in 1898, in the northern Chiswick district of Acton Green. It is prominently situated on a corner facing the common. The Grade II listed building is "elaborately decorated" to a design ...

, so that The Tabard and Norman Shaw formed an exception. Stamp saw it as significant that the pub's name evoked "Chaucer and Olde England", while the building looked nothing like "a contemporary gin palace".

Pub

The Tabard pub has an entrance porch with Tuscan columns; to either side are windows divided into many small panes. The roughcast first floor of the pub has a pair of projecting bow windows, with small round windows on either side; a third similar gable faces west. A cornice forms an overhang above the windows, topped by two tile-hung gables, each with five small

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed windows. The architectural historian

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

described the Tabard as "especially attractive, with tile-hung gables and very original shallow-curved, completely glazed bay-windows". The swing sign was painted by

Thomas Matthews Rooke Thomas Matthews Rooke (1842, London – 1942, London) was a British watercolourist. He worked as a designer, as an assistant to other artists, and was commissioned by John Ruskin to make architectural drawings. Life Ruskin hired Rooke from Mor ...

, one of the artists resident in Bedford Park. The pub, depicted by

Thomas Erat Harrison Thomas Erat Harrison (1858–1917) was an English artist who made sculptures, medals, paintings, and stained glass. Biography Harrison was born in St John's Wood, London; his father was a builder. He was active between 1885 and 1910. He exhibit ...

, was among the buildings celebrated in an 1882 illustrated book ''Bedford Park'' on the then-fashionable garden suburb. File:The Tabard sign by TM Rooke, curved bay-windows.jpg, Swing sign by TM Rooke, curved bay-windows File:School of Art, Stores and Tabard Inn by Thomas Erat Harrison 1882.jpg, ''School of Art, Stores and Tabard Inn'' by

, 1882 File:Tabard Inn and St Michael and All Angels Church by TM Rooke.jpg, ''Tabard Inn and St Michael and All Angels Church'' by

, c. 1895. The view (now blocked) is from the south. File:Tabard front window and column.jpg, Front window and column

House

The central house is of red brick on ground and first floors, contrasting with the pub. The four windows on the first floor are separated by

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s of red brick. Its gables are roughcast.

Stores

The stores has three wide projecting shop-windows of many panes occupying most of its front face, above a red brick wall containing two

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...

s for the basement; the front door is set in the middle window. The roughcast first floor has wide projecting 'Ipswich' pattern

oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found pro ...

s, supported on wooden brackets. The second floor, also roughcast, projects strongly; each bay has a seven-light window, the centre light larger than the rest and arched. Bedford Park Stores front.jpg, Bedford Park Stores, front on to Bath Road Bedford Park Stores '1880' drainbox.jpg, '1880' drainbox Bedford Park Stores rear corner.jpg, Rear, corner view from Flanders Road

Pub interior

On the ground floor of The Tabard are the original

arts and craft A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

tiling by

William De Morgan William Frend De Morgan (16 November 1839 – 15 January 1917) was an English potter, tile designer and novelist. A lifelong friend of William Morris, he designed tiles, stained glass and furniture for Morris & Co. from 1863 to 1872. His tiles ...

and the tiled early

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

fireplace surrounds by

Walter Crane Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and K ...

. There are moulded door and window surrounds,

dado rail A dado rail, also known as a chair rail or surbase, is a type of moulding fixed horizontally to the wall around the perimeter of a room. The dado rail is traditionally part of the dado or wainscot and, although the purpose of the dado is main ...

s, and a window seat. The chimneypieces are bolection-moulded and

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

tiling. The bar counter is of panelled wood with a metal footrest. The pub has been extended to take in the ground floor of the manager's house to the east. This consists of two rooms, the lower part of their walls up to the dado rail panelled with

tongue-and-groove Tongue and groove is a method of fitting similar objects together, edge to edge, used mainly with wood, in flooring, parquetry, panelling, and similar constructions. Tongue and groove joints allow two flat pieces to be joined strongly together t ...

timber. The first floor (now the theatre) is accessed by a staircase in the courtyard, again panelled up to the dado rail. File:Tiled entrance of The Tabard.jpg, Tiled entrance File:Tabard entrance tiles - ornamental plasterwork.jpg, Entrance tiles - ornamental plasterwork File:Tabard entrance ornamental plasterwork.jpg, Entrance ornamental plasterwork The poet and campaigner for

buildings

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

wrote that The Tabard was a place where "men could play the

clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to compositi ...

to ladies in tussore dresses and where supporters of William Morris could learn of early Socialism".

Usage

The pub is now managed by

Greene King Greene King is a large pub retailer and brewer. It is based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The company owns pubs, restaurants and hotels. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by CK Assets in October 2019. ...

; before that it was managed by

Punch Taverns Punch Pubs & Co is a pub and bar operator in the United Kingdom, with around 1,300 leased pubs. It is headquartered in the traditional brewing centre of Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange as a constitu ...

and

Spirit Pub Company Spirit Pub Company plc (Spirit) was a pub and restaurant company in the United Kingdom based in Burton upon Trent and originally formed by Punch Taverns. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Greene King in June 20 ...

under its

Taylor Walker Pubs Spirit Pub Company plc (Spirit) was a pub and restaurant company in the United Kingdom based in Burton upon Trent and originally formed by Punch Taverns. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Greene King in June 20 ...

brand. On the first floor is the Chiswick Playhouse (formerly the Tabard Theatre), an intimate fringe theatre which as well as putting on productions of plays has hosted comedians such as

Al Murray Alastair James Hay Murray (born 10 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor, musician and writer from Hammersmith. In 2003, he was listed in ''The Observer'' as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2007 he was voted the 16th gr ...

Harry Hill Matthew Keith Hall (born 1 October 1964), known professionally as Harry Hill, is an English comedian, presenter and writer. He pursued a career in stand-up following years working as a medical doctor, developing an off-beat, energetic performan ...

and

Russell Brand Russell Edward Brand (born 4 June 1975) is an English comedian and actor known for his flamboyant, loquacious style and manner. Brand has received three British Comedy Awards: Best Newcomer (2006), Best Live Stand-Up (2008), and the award for ...

. The Bedford Park Stores building is now used as offices.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tabard, Chiswick Pubs in the London Borough of Hounslow Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Hounslow Grade II* listed pubs in London Richard Norman Shaw buildings Chiswick Buildings and structures in Chiswick Hotel buildings completed in 1880