I Failed to Garner What I Wanted About Garner's.
I've had this image floating around for some time now and thought that I'd set about trying to identify the place. There were a few clues contained within it. It was at number nine on some street in some town or city and it appeared that the photograph would've been taken in 1915 plus or minus a bit as the car looks to be the mth cousin n times removed of the Ford which I'm currently driving and Model-Ts were being built in the UK from 1911.
George Ray seemed to be selling draught Charrington's, so with breweries in Bethnal Green and Burton, number nine would likely to be somewhere in London or the East Midlands areas.
I couldn't find a George Ray at a pub in any relevant directory or in either of the 1911 or 1921 censuses, so I did what I probably should've thought about doing first. I did a reverse image search. What should pop up but an image from Charrington's architects' archives. It informed me that the photograph was taken in 1919 and was of a beer house called Garner's on Bishop's Road in Paddington. Very handily placed for a beer before departing from Paddington Station, it wasn't marked on the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map published in 1932, so I've stuck a pin on it for you.
As a little aside, the PH marked on the other end of the block was the Prince of Wales which was demolished and replaced by another of the same name, a couple of hundred yards away, on Cleveland Terrace.
Back to Garner's. Why was it called Garner's? When did it appear on the scene? With regards to the former, I assumed that it was named after the original proprietor. After all, back in my youthful days in Great Yarmouth I used to visit Back's which was named after the members of the Back family who'd run it in the past. There was also Diver's, which was originally the Gallon Pot, owned by the Diver family. And of course Peggotty's was named after... Errr, so much for that theory, as the former St. George's Wine Vaults took its new name from Clara Peggotty, David Copperfield's nanny in Dickens' novel, whose family Charlie-boy put living in the town.
I was as successful in finding a Mr Garner in the directories and censuses as I had been of tracking down George Ray, but I did eventually find Mr Ray. He was trying to evade detection by using his middle name. In 1911, William George Ray was keeping a beer house at number 9, Bishop's Road.
He remained there until 1932/3. How do I know this? Well, the brewery had conveniently listed the names of the tenants of Garner's, from 1913 onwards, on the back of the photograph. Or photographs, if truth be told. For they also had one taken in 1935.
Written on the rear of this 1935 image is 'BH ante 1869', suggesting that the place was operating as a beer house more than forty-odd years prior to me pinning George Ray down as being there in 1911. I haven't been able to get back quite that far in the history of Garner's proprietors, but in 1871 Emma Somerville was recorded in the census as a hotel keeper at number nine.
Whilst not being able to trace any earlier keepers, Garner's was operating in 1866 as it was mentioned in an advert posted in the Daily Telegraph and London Courier on the 10th December that year.
Running forward from Emma Somerville to George Ray, using just the censuses, as I'm getting a little tired of fruitless directory delving, we have Henry Tredle there in 1881...
...Henry Richards in 1891...
...and Frederick Jones in 1901.
Post-George Ray life is much easier thanks to somebody at Charrington's recording the tenants on the reverse of the photographs. He was followed at Garner's by a Mr Thompson who was there until 1938/9 when Miss Chapman took over. After Miss Chapman the records show a Mrs Hopkins there, but Annie Chapman had married Edward Hopkins in 1942 and stayed on at Garner's until she called 'Time gentlemen, please' for the final time on 11th February 1960. Charrington's lease of the property had expired. Even if it hadn't, it appears that the place would've closed anyway for the building was demolished the same year as the area was redeveloped. Where Garner's once stood now looks like this.
There we have it. Post finished, but I just have to admit defeat. I am still no wiser as to who Garner was.
Edit prior to publication:
After completing the post I came across a couple of other bits and bobs but couldn't be bothered to rewrite the piece, so I've put them here. Firstly an advert, in the London Daily Chronicle of 24th June 1891, advertising the availability of a different public house with interested parties to contact a Mr Richards at Garner's. I'm presuming that Henry Richards had only recently taken on Garner's at the time of that year's census and was wishing to offload the tenancy of his previous place.
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Secondly, it seems that Henry Richards wasn't there that long, for Kelly's directory gives a George Chipperfield as a beer retailer at 9, Bishop's Road in 1895.
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.
The newspaper images are courtesy of the British Library Board/British Newspaper Archive.
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