Side view, the Black Friar Pub
Henry Poole (1873-1928)
1875, 1903
174 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4
Photograph and text Jaqueline Banerjee
Other Views
[Compare to another wedge-shaped pub: Bittles Bar in Belfast]
The Black Friar pub at 174 Queen Victoria Street, EC4, provides an antidote to the idea that the Arts and Crafts movement was all rather earnest. This wedge-shaped building narrowly squeezed into a junction by Blackfriars Bridge was built in 1875 on a site once occupied by the Blackfriars Monastery. Henry Poole (1873-1928) decorated the exterior in 1903, and the ground floor interior remodelled in 1905 by H. Fuller Clark, using multi-coloured marble, mosaics, bronze reliefs of jolly-looking monks, and decorative touches such as the elaborate fire-basket with goblin ends. The monks are shown singing carols, collecting fish and eels for their meatless days, and so on. One is just about to boil an egg. An extension to the main saloon is lined with marble and alabster with more bronze reliefs and mosaics, and motifs such as "Haste is Slow" and "Industry is All."
Poole trained under Harry Bates and G.F. Watts (whose Postman's Park memorial is only a short walk away), and worked mainly as an architectural sculptor. Both Poole and Clark were committed members of the Arts and Crafts movement, and really went to town (or, rather, city) over this fabulous little pub. Despite its distinctly medieval feel, the decor is also sometimes classified as Art Nouveau. While not one of the new breed of gastropubs, The Black Friar can also be recommended for its food, especially its pies!
References
History provided on The Blackfriars menu.
Speel, Bob. Henry Poole, R.A. (1873-1928).
Weinreb, Ben, and Christopher Hibbert, eds. The London Encyclopaedia. London: Macmillan, rev. ed. 1992.
Last modified 24 July 2007