In 2015 Historic England considered whether to designate the building as a Listed Building. The conclusion was that the building should not be designated and this was explained as follows:

History

According to John Land in his short book ‘Village Pubs of Thanet: Past and Present’ (1980s), the pub
originated in a farm dating back to the 1660s but there is no evidence of this early date in the fabric of the
building. The building appears on Greenwood's map of Kent of 1821 and in 1823 William Cobbett probably
breakfasted at the pub, although the ‘little hamlet’ near Margate (assumed to be Acol) where he ‘could get no
corn for my horse, and no bacon for myself!’ is not actually named (Cobbett 1830, 207). The pub was named
in 1842 in a list of public houses owned by the Margate brewer, Francis Cobb and his partners, and it
appears in the 1847 edition of Bagshaw’s History, Gazetteer & Directory of Kent run by one Thomas Hogbin.
The pub appears to have remained tied to the Cobb Brewery until the company was taken over by
Whitbread’s in 1968.

Based on the architectural evidence, the main part of the pub probably dates to a rebuilding in the early C19.
Some surviving red brick work on the north elevation of the rear range, laid in English bond, indicates
possible late-C18 origins for this part of the building but this again was largely rebuilt in the C19. The First
Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1873 shows the footprint of the building to be unchanged from the present
apart from the extension of the western single-storey range to the north carried out in the late C20.

Details
Public house of early C19 date with some possible late C18 fabric and a late C20 extension. It is situated to
the north of the village at the junction of Acol Hill and Margate Hill.

MATERIALS: yellow brick with red clay tile main roofs and slate outshut roofs.

PLAN: the building consists of a main three-storey plus cellar range with a hipped roof. Adjoining this to the
north is a two-storey plus attic range with a pitched roof and two outshuts, and to the west, two, parallel,
single-storey ranges with pitched roofs. The southern one was possibly originally a stable block and the
northern one is a modern extension.

EXTERIOR: the principal (south) elevation, of yellow brick laid in Flemish bond, has a symmetrical
composition with the fenestration of horned two-over-two timber sash windows in segmental brick arches with
stone sills. The upper floors have three evenly spaced windows with the centre window on the first floor
bricked up and its sill removed (photographs from the 1900s show the opening with a painted pub sign
instead of a window). The ground floor has windows either side of a central doorway reached by three stone
steps. The doorway has timber jambs and a hood supported on stone brackets. An additional door to the left
of the elevation appears to be a later insertion but is shown in the 1900s photograph. Below the left hand
window is a cellar drop with timber doors and a stone lintel. The single-storey range to the west has three
inserted windows (the 1900s photograph shows a single wide, centrally placed, door). The side elevations are
blind except for a modern window inserted at second floor level on the east elevation. There are double
chimney stacks either side of the junction with the northern range.
The lower two-storey range to the rear is mainly of yellow brick laid in Flemish bond on the east and west
elevations, apart from a section of the ground floor of the east elevation which is of red brick laid in English
bond, suggesting an earlier date than the rebuilt upper section. The northern elevation is in an irregular bond.
Fenestration is irregular of timber framed casements, most in plain square openings, but some with
segmental arches. There is a slim gable-end chimney stack. The eastern outshut has the same irregular
bond as the northern wall of the rear range but the northern outshut is of a paler brick laid in Flemish bond.

The western rear extension is sympathetically built in brick with a tiled hipped roof mirroring that of the
original western range.

INTERIOR: the bar interiors were stripped out and refitted during conversion to residential use in 2015. The
main bar at the front of the building, extending down three steps into the single-storey west range through a
modern opening, appeared to have been modernised previously. One original fireplace with a segmental
brick arch survives but has lost its surround. The rear bar also retains its fireplace with a corbelled stack but
has a probably later brick surround and hearth with a projecting timber mantelbeam.
The upper floors have fireplaces without surrounds and retain two flights of stairs, that between the ground
and first floor having only its simple turned newel surviving. All internal doors have been removed as have
some lathe and plaster room partitions. Exposed joists are of machine-cut softwood as are most elements of
the roof structure.

The cellar, reached via a flight of brick steps with stone treads has a brick vault on its northern side. It has
been suggested that this was an oven dating from when the building was a farmhouse but this seems unlikely
as it would appear to be too large for an oven and the floor is at the same level as the rest of the cellar. There
is also no evidence of a flue. It seems more likely to have been a bottle cellar.

historic england, 2015, Former Crown and Sceptre, Acol, Designation report (Listing Report). SKE31033.