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‘

58 East Street is where The Fleece, formerly the Golden Fleece was located. It was one of Chichester’s oldest inns. An ale house stood on this site in 1641 and may have existed at a much earlier date. It had become an inn – offering food and accommodation by 1710 under the name Coach or Coach and Horses and later the Bell.

From 1812–1823, the city’s Member of Parliament was William Huskisson whose nomination as a candidate took place at the Fleece on 28 September 1812. In 1827, Huskisson joined the Duke of Wellington’s government, serving in various roles, including President of the Board of Trade. He had the dubious distinction of becoming the world’s first railway fatality when he was killed by George Stephenson’s ‘Rocket’ at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830.

It is also said that an earlier Member of Parliament, William Cawley, was born here. Cawley was one of the regicides, who signed the Death Warrant of King Charles I, following his trial for treason in January 1649.

The inn provided extensive stabling under proprietor Charles Morgan around the 1890s and by L. Gould who took over premises occupied by Morgan in Little London Mews.

However, soon motor carrier services were developed with services to Portsmouth and surrounding villages in the 1920s.

Of the licensees, the popular John Kemp Alderson, Sergeant -Major of the Chichester Company of Volunteers, became tenant of the Fleece in 1917. Licensing legislation was not often adhered to and the recently appointed licensee Vernon Carter was fined in 1942 for buying spirits from an unauthorised person who had stolen them from his employer, Messrs A. Purchase wine merchants.

The inn was the meeting place for various societies including the ‘Ancient Order of Foresters, Court Prince of Wales No. 4879’ and the ‘Good Intent Friendly Society’. In 1934 The Fleece had the largest Slate Club of any licensed premises in Chichester with a membership of 220. These clubs were not run for healthy members but for those who might fall sick. At the close of the Club year it paid out £1 3s per member.

The Fleece closed in 1987 to be occupied by retail outlets.

(1) With thanks to Gravelroots.net http://www.gravelroots.net/history/180.html

There is much speculation surrounding the origin of this pub’s name which only came into use in 1951, previously being referred to as St Martin’s Brewery – St Martin of Tours was the patron saint of the Worshipful Company of Vintners.

Immediately adjacent was one of the city’s Poor Houses (workhouses) and it is said that the inmates were passed food through a hole in the wall to the neighbouring property. Another theory is that workers at the St Martin’s Brewery that also abutted the property would pass barrels back and forth between the inn and the brewery through a hole in the cellar wall. Another theory, which is more likely a folk tale, is that there was a debtor’s prison on this site, and family and friends would pass food and drink through this hole to their loved ones.

A plaque on the bar wall states 1742, however, the brewery dates back at least to 1684 and probably earlier.

Long-serving William ‘Billy’ Parson was landlord of St Martin’s Brewery from 1915 to 1927 when he died at the age of 37.

The inn was the location for the keenly fought dart’s competition, the Brickwood Challenge Cup (Brickwoods being the owning brewers). Cups were presented at the ‘annual smoker’ – a smoking concert. Darts became very popular in the 1930s with over 12,000 clubs and 750,000 members registered with the National Darts Association in 1937. The Brewery was also the location for various start-up clubs including the ‘ping-pongers’ and the ‘air riflers’ and was a meeting place for organisations such as the ‘Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (RAOB) Royal Sussex Branch’, the ‘Ancient Order of Foresters Court Prince of Wales, No. 4879’ – and the Chichester Post Office employees who recalled the time when innkeepers acted as postmasters. The first dinner of the Chichester Military Band was held there in 1937.

In 1938 a talk at the inn entitled ’The Problems of Economic Planning’ arranged by The Workers’ Educational Association had special reference to Russia – then suffering the ‘Great Purge’ under Stalin. The tenor of the presentation by the speaker, who had visited Russia, was on the efforts of unskilled workers undertaking the massive reconstruction.

The freehold of the pub is held by Green King.  Nos 2 and 3 St Martin’s were Grade II listed in 1950.

On your right at 11 Priory Road you will see the Park Tavern. Its existence postdates that of 1805 as there is no record of a pub at that location then.

For some years Mrs Gilmore was licensee here and was a licensed victualler in the area into her 80s. She died at the age of 91 in 1936.  In 1887 Mrs Pratt successfully applied for renewal of the licence, her husband Henry Pratt having some two weeks before been convicted and fined for selling drink during prohibited hours on a Sunday. However the bench cautioned Mrs Pratt against any repetition of the offence for which they were fined at the last sessions day.

In 1921 a new licensee Thomas George Purchase was given permission to change its name to The Ritz Hotel and to effect alterations to the premises to improve supervision; clearly to take the premises upmarket.

The Ritz was the centre for various community and sporting organisations hosting the AGM of the Priory Park Cricket Club and billiard competitions. In 1922 it was the venue for a two and a half meeting of a Sussex County Football Association Commission investigating ‘incidents’ concerning various small clubs in the district. One concerned Summersdale v. Fishbourne which led to the referee abandoning the game following the dismissal of a Summersdale player for a foul, the dangerous play adopted by the Summersdale players – who got ‘ratty’ after Fishbourne had scored – and the disgraceful behaviour of the spectators.

To give a sense of the harshness of punishments meted out not that long ago – in 1933 three ivory billiard balls were stolen and the accused was sentenced to one month’s hard labour by the Chichester City Bench.

The pub reverted to its current name in 1964; the freehold is held by Fuller Smith and Turner plc.

It is believed that in the late 18th century the first stagecoach from Chichester to London ran from the spacious yard of the inn which in 1805 was called St George under publican Mrs Miller.

The stagecoach, which was operated by Robert Quennel who lived in the neighbouring property, probably ended its journey at the thriving transport hub of the Golden Cross Inn at Charing Cross. In 1804 the poet and visionary, William Blake (1757–1827) travelled from London to Chichester for his trial of sedition, after he was accused of evicting drunken soldiers from his garden at Felpham with the words, ‘‘Damn the King, damn the country and damn you too!’  He may well have alighted at the George and Dragon having travelled along Stane Street via Petworth.

The yard continued to be used for the horsey fraternity with landlord Mr Goldie offering experienced instructors for riding hacks and children ponies in the 1940s. Accommodation in the form of flats were also available. In the days when the city had a bad reputation for drunken brawling, the George and Dragon must have had its fair share of altercations as it was known locally as the ‘Bucket of Blood.’ Wile no car parking attendants existed then, there were ‘paving commissioners’ to enforce the law. Landlord Hastings Langley, who kept the tap room,  was fined 10s and 8s costs in 1865 for leaving a waggon in Priory Lane.

It was the location for meetings by various organisations including the Angel Provident Society who held their first annual dinner in 1904 when the funds stood at £402 2s 9p being invested in the Post Office Savings Bank. The Friendly Societies Infirmary Demonstration Committee enjoyed a ‘smoking’ concert in 1903, a not infrequent event across pubs in those days for those addicted to the ‘weed’.

The freehold is held by the Punch pub group. The building was listed Grade II in 1971.

The building at 57 North Street is Georgian and was built in 1804–6 as the home of Admiral Sir George Murray, who distinguished himself at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 and became Mayor of Chichester in 1815, the year he was knighted.

In February 1939 plans for a £25,000 licensed residential hotel, known as the Ship Hotel, were approved by the City Licensing Justices with a full license assigned to Mrs Betty Healy who was to be the resident manageress. The application was made by the then owners of the building, Allied Hotels.

Although the licenses conditions did not cover the provision of a bar, the application was opposed by Arthur Bennett the resident manager of the Dolphin Hotel and Mr Bisshopp licensee of the Old Cross. The former was concerned that his monopoly was under threat and the latter that there was no real market for dining rooms.

With the work of local architect Harry Osborn the Ship Hotel eventually opened to non-residents on 12 April 1939 offering 30 bedrooms, 17 bathrooms, H&C water and central heating and a passenger lift.

Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery met here in 1944 prior to D-Day. In 2015 the Harbour Hotel group acquired The Ship Hotel renaming it the Chichester Harbour Hotel and Spa. The building was listed Grade II in 1950.

(1) Image from Alan Green

Formally the Green Dragon, the pub at No. 65 North Street was rebuilt in 1928 and given its current name in commemoration of the city’s outstanding Tudor market cross. The date of the rebuild is shown on dice embedded in the front wall.

The land here was owned by the Bishop of Chichester in medieval times which history was thought to explain the appearance of a ghostly apparition reported in 1938. Following the Reformation, two tenements were built on this site and by 1688 they had been converted into an alehouse. Alehouses (later beerhouses) were licensed only to sell ale or beer and could not sell more intoxicating liquors or offer accommodation.

A local sporting hero in the late 19th century was Mr D. Richards, once the world champion for the most cannons in billiards. He played matches and gave exhibitions in the Old Cross in 1897 and was pitted against landlord Arthur Purchase who was more than a match for the professional on points conceded to him.

Arthur was landlord for at least two decades till his death in 1911. The property remained in the family and was due to be auctioned in 1919 together off with the private residence at No. 66,  but was sold before it took place.

In 1930, following a temporary change in licensee to Frederick Munroe, Frank Richards took over the pub opening a new billiard room and promoting its new ‘Snack Bar’ apparently located at No. 35 North Street.

In 1939 the then landlord Mr Bisshopp was one of the objectors at a court hearing to the plans for a new hotel (which became the Ship Hotel) as he felt, based on his own experience, that there was little demand for dining-room trade. He thought the people behind the new restaurant were very plucky.