The Fountain at 29 Southgate is probably Chichester’s oldest surviving pub, dating back to the late eighteenth century. It abutted the south gate of the city as shown by a missing length of cornice. Apart from a brief interruption in the 1980s, when it was renamed, the Cathedral Tavern, it has always been known as the Fountain.

What was described as a ‘gargantuan meal’ was eaten here in 1807 by a soldier looking to win a bet. George Neal was the landlord here in the 1830s. His daughter, Sarah, married Joseph Wells, the Kent county cricketer. Their son found fame as the novelist, H.G.Wells. The old game of Singlesticks or Back-sword was played here. One worthy winner was known as the ‘Muff of Lavant.’

On 12 November 1873 licensed victualler of the Inn, Sampson Willcocks was declared bankrupt in Lloyds list. A special license was granted to George Smith for the Fountain, as trustee under the bankruptcy of Sampson, and temporary authority was given to George Griffiths to carry on the house till next transfer day when the license was to be transferred to him.

It seemed to be the favoured venue for meetings of Post Office staff – the Amalgamated Society of telephone employees (Chichester Branch) held a ‘smoking’ concert in 1914 while the Engineering Staff (Post Office Telephones) enjoyed one 1915. Those in 1914 enjoyed a programme of songs such as ‘Tis the Navy’, ‘Handy Man’, Madam La Sharta’ and ‘O’er the green fields’ with an interlude where Mr Reed-Ford performed his sleight of hand tricks and card manipulation. It was also noted that Mr Cole’s Tango dance was very amusing! In 1915 a collection was initiated limited to 1d to provide matches for wounded soldiers – it realized 4s (about £50 in 2020).

The Fountain Inn is privately owned but is leased to Hall and Woodhouse for a period of 49 years from 1997. The Fountain Inn including the buildings adjoining the Inn to the West were Grade II listed in 1971.

1581 is the earliest documentary evidence of the existence of the King’s Head.

An ale house was on this site (50 South Street) from about 1599. It was in around 1740 that the Tudor façade was added to the Tudor building. Legend claims that a tunnel once ran from the King’s Head to the Cathedral, so that choristers could enjoy a covert pint of ale. The clockmaker, Henry Fogden, was landlord from 1804 until after 1840.

A gruesome event occurred in 1889 when a man named John Dyer purchased some rat poison from a nearby chemist and subsequently entered the King’s Head to consume the potion mixed with some beer in an attempted suicide. Becoming violently sick he was taken to infirmary where he recovered. Appearing at the City Bench later he was let off with a warning of the serious nature of his offence – one ‘against the laws of both God and Man’.

In 1891 publican Frederick Tilling was convicted for ‘selling gin not of the nature, substance and quality demanded by the purchaser’ it being 40.3 degrees under proof having been examined by the public analyst. It consisted of two parts gin of the lowest legal strength and ten parts of added water. A notice stating ‘All sprits sold in this establishment are diluted’ had been displayed at times but ‘it was possible that while dusting the place the notice might have fallen behind the glasses on the shelf’ said Tilling. Tilling was fined £2 and 13s costs, the alternative being fourteen days’ imprisonment.

Mrs Raynor, landlady in 1898, was the innocent party in an attempt by Ann Sharp, employed at the King’s Head, to obtain a sum of 10s from Mrs Turner, the owner of a neighbouring shop Turner and Son. The girl had sent a note to Mrs Turner, via a lad James Munro who also worked at the Inn, stating ‘With Mrs Rayner’s complements. Would you mind lending me half a sovereign’s worth of change until Mr Raynor gets up and gets some, and then I will send it back over to you’. Suspicions arose when Mrs Raynor received a request that evening for repayment of 10s and it was discovered that Ann now possessed a new pair of shoes. On further questioning Ann admitted the offence and was committed for trial with bail being accepted for £20 and two sureties of £10 each.

Friary Meux was revived by Allied in 1979 as a brand name for its public houses, but disappeared after Allied’s pubs were sold to Punch Taverns in 1999.

The King’s Head was the venue for several bodies, one being the ‘Falstaff’ Lodge of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes. A policemen’s dinner (not ball!) was held for over 200 guests in 1904. Landlord Styles ran a welding business in the 1930s on the site which continued under new ownership after his death.  Mrs Mary Harriet Drury died aged 77 in 1936 having had the licence at the inn for nearly 30 years.

The ancient name of the pub was changed in 1994 to the Hog’s Head. Green King purchased the property in 2006 and it subsequently become Trent’s bar-restaurant providing accommodation, so, in a sense, it has become an inn!

The building at 5-6 East Street occupied by the National Westminster Bank was completed in 1900 for the London and County Banking Company and was designed in a late period of Gothic with oriel windows. Earlier it was the site of the Swan Inn recorded to go back to 1513 making it one of the oldest inns in Chichester.

In the seventeenth century it vied with The Dolphin as the ‘top’ inn having in 1638 named bedchambers such as Fox, Lion, Rose, Bell, Angel, Green and Spread Eagle, likely to be decorated with appropriate motifs. – such titling indicative of superiority.

In April 1628 It is likely that Lionel Cranfield, The Earl of Middlesex and ex-Lord Treasurer of England and owner of the Wiston Estate stayed overnight where Edward Salloway or his father Thomas might have been his host. Supper was meat, fowl and fish with apple tart for dessert – charged for eating in a private room (6p for a fire and a bill of £8 2s for the stay).

Innkeepers were not averse to cheating.  Mr. Salloway, innkeeper and merchant of the Swan, was not selling his hay ‘by the bottle’ in 1627 and the Swan was fined in 1659 for selling overpriced beer and ‘not bottleing their haye’. This latter is thought to refer to storing hay in standard bundles or in bottles to prevent cheating.

One innkeeping John Askewe ‘feloniously’ hanged himself in the ‘faggottre chamber’ of the Inn in 1577, possibly due to indebtedness despite his goods and chattels being worth £22 0s 6d (over £6,000 today).

The Swan, also known as the Royal Swan, was the hub of life in eighteenth and nineteenth century Chichester. Dr Samuel Johnson stayed here and the fiery Radical, William Cobbett gave lectures here. It was rebuilt in 1819 after a disastrous fire. In 1832, the inn boasted hot and cold baths, good stabling, lock-up coach houses, post horses, chaises and every convenience for the traveller.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert stayed here overnight when journeying to Portsmouth for the crossing to their house at Osborne on the Isle of Wight. The royal couple came out onto the balcony to acknowledge the cheers of the crowds. The Swan was also used for meetings of the Mayor and Corporation when it was too cold to meet in the Guildhall in Priory Park. The Inn closed sometime after 1845.

(1) The painting of the Swan dated 1715 is reproduced with permission of the Pallant House Gallery. Description of the Swan Inn sign: A large and elaborate wrought iron sign bracket reaches a third of the way across the street. From it hangs a large sign, dominating the scene; it supports a picture of a white swan, standing against a sunset with wings outstretched and neck curved. Suspended from the arched end of the bracket is a carved wooden representation of Bacchus, the god of wine, astride a wine barrel with four bunches of grapes swinging below, the whole gilded; it indicated that good wine and a high standard of service was available within.

The genesis of the Cattle Market Inn at 13 Eastgate Square was the formation around 1869 of a road leading down to the new Cattle Market the creation of which had been approved by Parliament in June 1868.

The Devonshire Inn beer house run by James Stevens for many years was situated at the corner of Snag Lane (or Sway in 1868 paper) and at the entrance of the new road (now Market Road). He argued that it was in an ideal position to service the needs of customers if it was granted a spirit licence, many of whom had signed a ‘memorial’ in support of his application. Despite objections from neighbouring establishments the application was granted in August 1869 and the name of the beer house was changed to the Cattle Market Inn shortly thereafter.

Of later licensees one Henry Jacobs was recorded in the 1881 census as also trading as a bookbinder. The snowy scene of the Inn was taken in 1881. In 1888 it was the venue for a ‘smoking concert’ attended by forty or fifty of the ‘weed fraternity’ enjoying songs sung to an accompanying. At this time it was the meeting place for the “Pride of Sussex’ Lodge of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes. The RAOB is one of the largest fraternal organisations in the United Kingdom believed to have been founded by stagehands and theatre technicians in 1882 at the Harp Tavern near Drury Lane.

The public bar sems to have been unsuitably positioned as it occasionally suffered damage by vehicles negotiating Eastgate. In 1942 the public bar was struck by a Service lorry creating a ‘blitzed’ appearance while in 1943 a case was brought against an RAF officer whose car collided with a 50 cwt lorry which mounted the path and took out the window and surrounding masonry. In the event the lorry driver was found at fault in the subsequent County Court case.

The inn was sold for retail use in 1988. The freehold, like The Bull, is held by Cassamo Holdings Ltd based in the Isle of Man and was leased to Turners Pies in 2016.

The Bull Inn located at 4-5 Market Road was a Free house that closed in 2015.

Carpenter Samuel Wren was the publican in 1881 when the road was called Snag Lane. This name may come from the Sussex dialect word ‘snag’ meaning snail.

In 1896 the inn was the location for an inquest on the Lord Bishop of Chichester’s butler William Cramp who lived at 4 Market Road with his wife Mary Jane. On a Tuesday morning William got up as usual about half-past six and went downstairs. As he did not return despite her calling out for him she rushed down and found him in an outhouse with his throat cut. Mary called in for Mr Hunt the licensee of the Bull who summoned Dr. Ernest Buckell. William was still alive and was conveyed to the Infirmary but died on the way and was brought back. The Lord Bishop gave evidence saying that relations at the Palace with William were satisfactory. William had apparently been suffering from depression for some time exacerbated by an illness and subsequent hospital operation. The jury returned a verdict of ‘suicide while temporarily insane’.

In 1905 landlord Thomas Brown who had a reputation for drunkenness was charged with assaulting his daughter and threatening the family. ‘He had been an awful blackguard to his wife all his life’ said one daughter. He was bound over for a surety of £25 and ordered to keep peace for a month and pay cost of 9s 6d.

Licensee Edward Linkhorn suffered a tragedy in 1911 when his 36 year old son Charles Linkhorn was found drowned in the Canal. He had earlier been drinking at the Richmond Arms and according to the pub’s licensee William Soal was seen walking ‘not quite straight’ to the Station. He had appeared to have no worries, but the fact that his mackintosh and hat had been carefully put under the wall before drowning might suggest to some that the deceased had put himself in the water. In the end the inquest returned an open verdict of ‘found drowned’.

The Bull inn ran a knock-out darts competition and was at times the location for the annual general meeting of the Chichester City Band. At its 1937 meeting its accounts showed a balance of £6 7s. The Bandmaster, Mr E.D. Shepherd noted that 1936 had been an important one as it marked the beginning of contest work.

In 1942 at the Chichester City Bench it was acknowledged that licensed victuallers experienced difficulties in acquiring a full knowledge of all the legislation affecting their trade. Harold Anderson was a licensee in the 1940s and like other licensees at the time fell foul of the practice of buying liquor from seemingly authorised persons due to the difficulty experienced by licensees in obtaining sufficient spirits which resulted in having to refuse many customers. The convicted seller of the spirits was a youth of 18 who frequently visited the pubs of the defendants. Harold was let off lightly with a fine of £5 and costs of £1 1s. Harold was still licensee in 1947 when he died suddenly in his sleep.

The current owners of the freehold are Cassamo Holdings Ltd based in the Isle of Man who registered the title in 1992.

At 4 The Hornet is The Eastgate whose sign depicts the long-gone Eastgate of the City. It was originally a location for brewing by Stephen Woolbridge from around 1811 to his death in 1849, then by his wife Martha (recorded as malster in 1855) aided by her son Stephen who took over till 1858.

Then the business came into the hands of John Goldring & Co with the premises being recorded as the Eastgate Brewery. Following the death of John Goldring his executors sold goods and stock from the Eastgate Brewery and Spirit Stores in 1874. It was then run as a wine and grocery store by George Phillips before being associated with Gales of Horndean.

In 1908 the Children’s Act was enacted to protect the poorest children in society from abuse. It also included a provision to prevent children from entering public houses. To comply with the Act Gale and Co, by then the brewers, made alterations including the widening of the existing doorway and the provision of a bottle and jug department. James Montgomery Smith was licensee at the time and remained in that post for 26 years being the oldest established licensed victualler in Chichester when he died in 1932.

One of his sons, Victor Smith, who lived in the Eastgate Brewery and who predeceased him in 1925, was the leader of ‘Vic Smith’s’ dance orchestra which was popular throughout the County. It had the reputation of being a very ‘live’ jazz combination and Vic’s energetic work on the drums and cheery outbursts into song contributed materially to this.

Like many pubs, the Eastgate ran a slate club whereby its customers save money in a common fund; for example in 1913 they held their annual supper and concert and helped several members who were on the sick list during the year and agreed that a share-out of £1 each ‘very satisfactory’.

The land on which the property stands was formerly leasehold with a 1000-year term from 1665 but as later no lease originals or certified copies could be found it became possible for ownership of the freehold to be registered. Thus in 1946 the freehold of the property (and that of the neighbouring Voke’s Tea Room) were sold off at auction by a group of owners (Leslie Cecil Halsted and others) to George Gale and Co. Fullers, the current owners, acquired Gales in 2005 and had the freehold registered to them in 2008. The building was Grade II listed in 1971.

The site of the present Thai restaurant at the junction of Eastgate Square, between St Pancras and The Hornet was the location for the Unicorn Inn the title deeds for which, when owned by Messrs Henty and Constable, go back to the year 1741.

It was, with two short breaks the home of the ancient body the Mayor and Corporation of St. Pancras since its foundation in 1689. This was a mock corporation to celebrate and commemorate the overthrow of the Roman Catholic James II and the succession of the Protestant William of Orange following his landing in this country. Every year the corporation held a banquet with ‘plentiful supply of wine and ale, and everything provided to content the stomach’. So drunk did the members become that apprentice boys had to push them home in wheelbarrows – hence the nickname of the corporation –The Wheelbarrow Club – which survives to this day and is arguably the oldest dining club in Britain.

Chichester was not a healthy place in the 19th century suffering the worst cases of typhoid and consumption of any town in the whole country. There was huge debate between two opposing groups of local residents dubbed the ‘drainers’ and the ‘non or anti drainers’. The Anti-Drainage Party met at the Inn In 1889 to oppose the plans to install main drainage which was proposed to address the dampness of the City’s soil and the consequent tendency of the climate to promote phthisis or consumption. Opponents saw it as an unnecessary expense, a way to line the pockets of others and could be avoided by registration of cesspools and improving their maintenance. As one commented ‘a bucket of water or urine thrown on the ground would spread itself over the ground, be dried in the sun, and in a short time there would be nothing to see or smell’. In the event half the city’s houses were connected to mains drainage by 1896.

In 1889 The City Police Force held a dinner in the Inn to celebrate their extinction as a separate body since by the County Government Act the city, as far as the police are concerned, now came under the control of  the West Sussex County Authority.

Due to the need to widen the roads in the vicinity owners Henty and Constable (Brewers) with architects Whitehead and Whitehead and builders Patching and Co of Worthing redeveloped the site in the late 1930s to create a new Unicorn ‘Hotel’ which ‘set a new standard even among improved licensed premises’. The war memorial was moved from Eastgate Square to Litton Gardens in 1940.

Gracie Fields and actor George Graves visited the city in the 30s and selected the Unicorn Hotel for ‘rest and refreshment’ whereas Miss Evelyn Laye preferred the Village Hotel at Itchenor for the summer vacation. In 1939 it was one location for Air Raid Precaution (ARP) Wardens to test their readiness – the Unicorn being ‘wrecked’ with four persons trapped and injured.

The Hotel was the drinking hole for RAF pilots during the second world war. An American pilot, Robin Olds, on an exchange program with the RAF visited in 1946 and noted the range of photographs and drawings on the wall depicting those such as Sailor Malan, Douglas Bader and Stanford Tuck who were heroes to him when a young cadet in 1940.

The Unicorn closed as a pub in 1960s and up to 1994 the building was leased to the Chichester Festival theatre as the Minerva Studios). It became the offices of the Observer paper until 2015, then laid dormant until occupied by the restaurant.

The Nag’s Head is a ­­twentieth century mock Tudor building which was once a beer house.

John Turner was the named landlord in 1895 around which time Thomas Makepeace was a blacksmith in the adjoining yard. Thomas was registered as a beer retailer in 1905 and following his death in 1909 his wife Alice Kate took over the licence.

Alice married Alfred Green in June 1912 who became the landlord. He was called up for the army and the licence was transferred to Charles Hotson in June 1914 – who too joined the army, the licence moving to Thomas Cooper. Alfred and Alice parted in the best of terms and hoped to see each other again. They had no children. But he never came home when on leave and following his discharge in 1919 he did not return. On application and in the absence of her husband a formal separation was made and maintenance agreed. Alfred was working as a miner blacksmith in Motherwell Scotland but fell behind in maintenance payments. He had enough money for them to live together but not to live apart, partly because of the expense of travelling south to court hearings for which he had to borrow money. He lost his job in Motherwell and had been committed to prison in connection with arrears. He had repeatedly offered her a home, but Alice would not come; in any event the Clerk of the Court stated he could not offer her a home because she had a separation order. It is not known what happened later to Alfred – in all a sad tale.

Later owners of the Nags Head, brewers Hoare and Co, who acquired it in auction in 1922, spent a substantial amount of money in 1925 completely refurbishing the premises. As a consequence, they sought, and obtained permission to replace the beer house licence by transferring to it the publican’s license then held in respect of the Market Tavern, which they had purchased from the Rock Brewery, Brighton. This had the effect of the Market Tavern ceasing to exist. After being rebuilt in the 1930s it traded as the Family and Commercial Hotel, before reverting to its previous name.

(1) Sourced from Facebook ‘Flashback Chichester’
(2) Sourced from Facebook ‘Flashback Chichester‘
(3) Sourced from Facebook ‘Flashback Chichester‘