61 Hackney Road, E2

Along the Hackney Road stands this building with a turret:

This on the corner of Waterson Street and Hackney Road, at the western end of Columbia Road.

After I’d sketched it, I walked into the picture, and had a look at the building from the Waterson Street side. It was a pub called the Duke of Clarence.

There is deep green tiling, characteristic of 19th century London pubs.

It was listed in the London Street Directory of 1940 as a pub. Other online references have it trading from 1802 up to 1944. For many decades it’s had retail premises on the ground floor.

Now it is home to “Colours of Arley” on the ground floor, which offers “bespoke striped fabric and wallpaper”. Other floors are occupied by tenants of “Fount London”, which provides small office spaces in quirky buildings.

It’s still standing on its corner, still noble, still useful, while the businesses and the district change around it.