Pubs

Marquess Tavern

An 1850s corner pub whose two side elevations are each bent into a pair of convex facets, with its name sunk into all three friezes.

Historic interiorNotable building

Built about 1854 and developed by James Wagstaffe, in yellow brick and stucco, three storeys with three windows to each street. The plan is the clever part: the front to Canonbury Street is flat, and the two sides, to Douglas Road and Arran Walk, are each angled to give two convex facets, so the building turns its corner in curves rather than a right angle.

The ground floor is stucco with chamfered rustication and round-arched openings, several of them blank; above run giant Corinthian pilasters, and first-floor windows with alternating triangular and segmental pediments. A good many of the upper windows are blank too, which is what lets the composition stay regular on a site that is not. MARQUESS TAVERN is sunk into the frieze on all three sides.

Inside, a horseshoe bar counter and deal panelling to the dado survive from the second half of the nineteenth century, and the rear wing keeps Corinthian pilasters and an entablature, moulded ribs to a covered roof with a lantern above it - now obscured - and mirrors in elaborate architraves on all four walls.

Where

32 Canonbury Street, N1 2TB

Nearest station

Essex Road · 3 min walk

Hours

Hours from the page that lists them, checked 20 September 2026.

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