CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

NORTHUMBERLAND - Blyth, King's Head

National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors Part Two

85 Bridge Street, Blyth, NE24 3AE

(B1329)

Tel: 01670 352050

Email: johnreedsnr@reedleisure.co.uk

Opening Hours: Closed lunchtimes with the right-hand bar only open on Fri-Sun evenings or by arrangement.

Draught Beer & Cider: Three real ales

Listed Status: Grade II

View this pub on a local map

The restrained three-storey exterior conceals a right-hand room of amazing ornateness for which the entrance area, with florid classical and Renaissance details in a floor to ceiling screen, prepares the way. It has a decoratively carved U-shaped bar counter with a marble top, mosaic flooring and a lavishly decorated almost square island-style bar-back fitting with bevelled mirrors. Around the room is a dado of Victorian panelling with a row of bevelled mirrors above the dado. A carved possibly mahogany fire surround with bevelled mirrors in panelling above held up by slender columns with capital. Stained glass windows at the rear of the room. There is no secure date for all this but it must be from the golden age of British pub-building around 1900. Everything has been well preserved. The fittings in the left-hand room date from the mid 1990s but the bar back fitting incorporates fittings from a former reception. Counter dates from mid 1990s and the dado panelling is modern. Closed lunchtimes with the right-hand bar only open on Fri-Sun evenings or by arrangement so ring before a planned visit.