Inverness, 106-110 Academy Street, The Phoenix Bar

Rubble with rendered ground floor and margins. To Academy Street, 2 storeys and attic, later 19th century bar frontage with chamfered openings at ground floor; 5 windows, (1 tripartite) at 1st floor. Piended roof. To Rose Street, Victorian ground floor frontage, 4 windows (3 tripartite) at 1st floor, 4 piended dormers (3 tripartite) rising from just below wallhead.Multi-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows above ground. Slated roof. Coped ashlar stacks with cans and thackstanes.INTERIOR: good early decorative scheme retained including shallow vestibule with part-glazed timer doors and curved, etched side windows. Public bar has boarded dadoes, anaglypta ceiling covering, original island counter with panelled front, terrazzo spittoon trough and 3 disused Dalex tall fonts.

This early burgh building retains an interesting and somewhat rare island bar to its ground floor interior. A once common feature in public houses the spartan public bar is of classic Scottish island bar-style. The gantry was replaced in 1983 and the interior may have been divided into two as the floor pattern indicates the existence of a partition. A water engine, formerly used to raise beer from the cellar, has been converted to electric power and can be seen in an illuminated case high up on the rear wall of the bar. During the 1980s, the adjoining property facing Rose Street was incorporated into the public house. List description updated as part of Public Houses Thematic Study 2007-08. (Historic Scotland)