Back to Bolingbroke.
- Stewart
- Mar 15
- 4 min read
"That's it. Sorted!"
And with that Mrs. Bygone Boozer had filled in another day or so in our social calendar. We were off to Old Bolingbroke to see Woody the Boreray and his two ovine chums, Josh and Jess. Regular readers of this nonsense may well recall some earlier visits to visit our woolly charges, such as this one featuring the lost Sun Inn in Darlton. Not wishing to finally pronounce that Old Bolingbroke's Black Horse has definitely gone for good (I haven't heard how the Asset of Community Value application has progressed.) and having covered the other bygones of the village in this previous post, the use of Bolingbroke in the title of this one must refer to somewhere, something or someone else. And, indeed, it does.
Number 66 – or, for some reason, sometimes number 68 – London Street in Norwich, once was the location of Bolingbroke's Stores. Here it is marked on the Ordnance Survey's town plan, which was published in 1885 from a survey completed three years earlier.
Among the beer retailers listed by Hunt in 1850 was George E. Bolingbroke.
George Errington Bolingbroke was, a few years later, to father artist Minna, who exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1905 and 1926, and from the mid 1850s he was a wine and spirit merchant in Upper St. Giles Street, a ten minute walk away from the London Street beerhouse which bore his name.
At this time a James King, along with wife Mary and daughter Eliza, is recorded in the 1861 census as keeping an ale and porter store in London Street...
...and I thought that from here things were going to be pretty simple as there seemed to be Kings in the place for the next four decades, but the proprietor and property description just kept changing.
The 1871 census shows James and family still in London Street, but keeping a Refreshment House.
Now, I had always thought that a Refreshment House didn't sell alcohol, but digging into the depths of the 1860 Refreshment House Act it appears that they could retail wine for consumption on the premises upon the acquisition of an appropriate licence. As the saying goes, every day's a school day.
In 1877 James's name appears in the Inns & Taverns section of Harrod's directory...
...and a couple of years later Harrod's competitor lists someone, whom I assume is his daughter going by her Sunday name, at number 68, which is once again described as refreshment rooms.
After James's death, his widow Mary continued at the Bolingbroke, which was recorded as a beerhouse in 1883...
...and when White's called again in 1890 they showed Eliza as being at Bolingbroke's Stores under the Hotels, Inns and Taverns heading. They also managed to marry her off!
Mary was still upright and breathing though, for in the following year's census she, along with Suzanna Eliza, was recorded as being a restaurant keeper. Beerhouse, hotel/inn/tavern, refreshment house and now a restaurant. What will it be next?
The King family's attachment to the Bolingbroke didn't last until the next head count. The Bolingbroke didn't make it that far either. In 1899 the licence was transferred to Sarah Greenway, as noted in the Norfolk Weekly Standard and Argus of the 13th May...
...and she ran the Bolingbroke until the end. In 1906 the Chief Constable objected to the renewal of the Bolingbroke's licence, as reported in the same publication on the 10th February, and the house was referred for compensation.
On 16th June, the Argus published the final decision, and that was the end of the Bolingbroke Stores.
The Bolingbroke Stores finally closed under compensation on 8th February the following year. Recently the property has been home to a hair and beauty salon.
Of course Woody of Bolingbroke doesn't need the services of such a place. He has his own personal coiffeur.
The newspaper images are courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).
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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