CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

LONDON, GREATER - London NW6, Kilburn, Black Lion

National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors Part Two

274 Kilburn High Road, Kilburn, London NW6, NW6 2BY

Tel: 020 7624 1424

Draught Beer & Cider: Real ale

Public Transport: Railway station: Kilburn

Listed Status: Grade II*

View this pub on a local map

An imposing corner-site pub built in 1898 to designs by architect, R. A. Lewcock. It has a spacious, light interior enriched with some particularly spectacular and appealing decoration. Pride of place goes to the series of four copper relief panels by designer F. A. Callcott depicting eighteenth-century ladies and gents at leisure at the supposed antecedent of the present pub. They are variously pictured enjoying a game of bowls, drinking and smoking, watching the inn sign being painted, and taking the waters at Kilburn Wells, the spa that lay nearby to the south. There is a deep and superbly ornate Florentine frieze in both main rooms and also a richly decorated ceiling. When built the main space would have been much more subdivided than it is now but there is still one screen surviving: it was moved to its present position during a major refurbishment in 2003, before which it was at right-angles to the main road. Long, panelled bar counter and original bar-back. Fine etched windows on the side elevation but mostly sadly removed from the front. The large room on the right (now a restaurant) was originally a music room.