This pub is a grade II listed building and the listing description is as follows: “Public house. Circa 1870, shown on the 1873 Ordnance Survey Map. Polychrome brickwork with stuccoed dressings, slate roof concealed by parapet and brick chimneystacks. Corner building of three storeys; five windows to New Cross Road elevation and two to Queens Road, including a tripartite window. Elaborate parapet with curved panel to Queens Road, pedimented panel with brackets to New Cross Road and modillion cornice. Corner full-height pilasters and bands between floors. All windows are sashes with vertical glazing bars and horns. Second floor windows are cambered with keystones and two windows have cast iron flower guards. First floor windows have round-headed arches filled with stuccoed decoration with keystones above, roundels between the windows and cast iron flower guards. Bar front has fascia, end pilasters with double brackets and windows with ventilation grilles above divided by pilasters. Interior retains a bar partition and both bars have original panelled wooden counter.”

The listing description dates back to 1999 and the bar partition has since then been removed. The pub was built by Watney’s Brewery. Note the ox blood-coloured exterior tiling incorporating advertisements for “Watney’s Ales” and “Reid’s Stout”. Inside the pub the best remaining feature is the two-sided servery with a magnificent bar-back, complete with Watney’s stag logos, cut and etched glass and gilded glass advertisements for “wines” and “liqueurs”. However, the mirrors in the bar-back on the left-hand side may be modern. Note also remnants of the original ceiling decoration and the cast iron pillars behind the bar counter.

On leaving the pub, note (outside the pub) a grade II listed ventilating pipe to former public conveniences with a light on the top. The listing description is as follows: “Ventilating pipe. Installed as part of public conveniences of 1897 by George Jennings, sanitary engineer, for Greenwich District Board of Works on behalf of the Vestry of St Paul's, Deptford. Central ventilating column of Egyptian pattern by Macfarlane's Castings of Glasgow and modelled on a design by Alexander 'Greek' Thomson for six lamp standards outside his Egyptian Halls, these were erected without authority and were demolished in 1871. This is one of only two known examples of the design, the other is in Clifton Rise, New Cross, but is not on its original site. The ventilating pipe served as an extract for foul gases from the lavatories below, which could be burnt off by the gas mantle at the top. The cast-iron ventilation shaft alone is listed for the special interest of its design. Its Egyptian pattern is most unusual, and it is special in its derivation from a model by a leading Scottish architect, Alexander Thomson. The ventilation columns in New Cross are the only works associated with Thomson in England. Source: Gavin Stamp, 'Greek T in London', in The Alexander Thomson Society Newsletter, No. 8, October 1993.”

The White Hart featured on the Fragments of the True (New) Cross: Evening Crawl of New Cross and Deptford in April 2017.

The WhatPub link is here: WhatPub/White Hart