Adelaide and Albert.
- Stewart
- 13 minutes ago
- 5 min read
It's hard to believe that it's been five weeks since the last piece of nonsense appeared on these pages. There's been all those British and Irish Lions matches to watch. Not just the Tests, but all the other games too. And then there has been the most gripping series of Test Match cricket since Ian Botham rekindled the Ashes in 1981. Not to mention the exploits of the Lionesses. With all this armchair activity, when combined with the usual array of hospital visits, there hasn't been too much time for keyboard tapping. To reduce the time available for directory delving and census crawling even further, Mrs Bygone Boozer and I have even managed to get away for some pedalling on foreign shores. We returned to Jämtland in Sweden, attracted by its traffic-heavy main roads...
...and its quieter gravel ones...
...one of which lead to the spökhus in Borgvattnet with its giant, ghostly waffles.
All this pedalling and waffle consumption makes one thirsty, especially in temperatures above 30°C. Yes, it managed to get to 31°C at 63.6°N, which is only a couple of hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle.
With the temperature so high, instead of my usual choice of an ale from the local brewery, I plumped for a lager. Now, the typical Central European-style pilsners are not really to my taste but Bärnsten, whilst brewed with some Hallertau hops, also contains a load of Challenger, Goldings and Cascade which are commonly used in ales.
Bärnsten is Swedish for amber and although it is certainly darker than many lagers seen in Blighty it isn't as amber as all the bitters that now seem to have been restyled as amber ales. Carefully poured, managing to leave the small amount of sediment behind – it is bottled unfiltered – it had a short-lasting bright, white head. Nose to the glass and inhale: slightly citrusy with hints of caramel. Take a mouthful: a honeyed maltiness with some bitterness. All in all, a very pleasant brew.
With all this sport watching and foreign pedalling this post has had to be produced without too much effort, so it's back to Hull as many of the documents dug up for the previous post on the Myton Tavern also contained information about the subject of this one. The Albert Inn, which stood at number 36, Adelaide Street, was just a few doors away from the aforementioned Myton Tavern.
Opening in 1851, its first licensee was Joseph Wharam, son of Robert who was running the Myton at the same time.
Joseph was one of five Wharams listed in the 1857 Post office directory, with four of them being publicans.
Other than the relationship between Robert and Joseph I haven't been able to determine whether there is any other connection between them. What I do know is that the Ship Molly was renamed the Rugby Tavern and is still operating today. I say this with a note of caution, as it is a Sam Smith's house and old Humphrey may well have closed it when a patron briefly took his phone out of his pocket for some reason other than to pay. The Windmill Inn is certainly no longer with us.
Joseph Wharam died in 1859 and two years later tailor John Taylor and family are living in number thirty-six.
The census makes no mention of the place being a pub, but it's named once more as the Albert Inn in the headcount of 1871, when Williamson Richardson and family were in residence.
Ten years later and it was John Whithorne who was pouring the pints...
...with Leonard Cooper fulfilling the task in 1891.
We met Leonard in the previous post, for he moved to the Myton before committing suicide there in 1903.
At census time in March 1901 William Edmunds is listed as being a beer seller at number thirty-six...
...but Humberside Police records inform us that in December of that year one Samuel Watkinson was the licensee.
The more eagle-eyed amongst you may well have spotted that Samuel was living there at census time, being William's brother-in-law.
As we can see from the above, by early 1906 Arthur Wilson was licensee and he remained in residence for both the 1911...
...and 1921 counts.
By the 1930s, the Albert was due for demolition in the same slum clearance programme which was to remove the Myton Tavern from Hull's list of hostelries. You may well have seen this aerial view from 1937 before, if you're one of the dozen or so folks who have read the previous post, which shows the degree of demolition which had taken place by 1937.
A closer view shows the rounded front of the Myton, where the two streets meet, and the Albert above it, on the other side of the jitty, snicket, ginnel, or whatever it is that Hullensians call these narrow thoroughfares.
Whilst the Myton Tavern closed in May 1941, the result of damage sustained in an air raid, the Albert survived the war and continued serving until 1949 before finally being flattened. Today its site is just a grassy space.
The Albert's licence was transferred to a newly built pub, The Bridges on Sutton Road. It too has now gone, replaced by a branch of Aldi.
Should you be interested, there is a wealth of information regarding Hull and East Yorkshire's pubs and social history on Paul Gibson’s website.
The Ordnance Survey map extract is copyright and has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the terms of this CC BY licence.
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