Coal Hole
From across the road- the view is down to the Thames from Strand
Front on view
The Coal Hole (a wonderful name, if not a wonderful pub) occupies a corner of the Savoy Building, designed by Thomas Collcutt. The theme of stone, dark wood and leaded light windows , carries on into the street level bar. The ceiling is very high with heavy black beams. Hanging banners suggest something medieval, but no, it was decorated in 1904. Under the mock beams is a beautiful marble frieze of wistful maidens picking vines.
Beside the bar, in a corner, is a magnificent fireplace, heavily decorated with reliefs of vines. New lighting has brought to life the pubs wonderful features. The gallery, converted from an office, is a good vantage point from which to view the friezes. The rare art nouveau décor was a brief interlude between the brashness of the late Victorian gin palaces and mega-pubs, and a new sentimental movement which was to favour the fake "ye olde inn", harking back to more wholesome times.
The cellar bar is open in the evenings and has its own entrance in the Strand. It was in the basement of the pub's former incarnation that the Wolf Club was founded, by actor and lush Edmund Kean. Supposedly a place where hen-pecked husbands could enjoy a sing-song, its real role was less innocent, and involved heavy drinking and 'loose women'. A term, Strandman would suggest is misleading!
SM
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MarkEsmith (19.12.06 14:05) Coal and hole? How can there be a better name? |
