From the notes of John Tiffney
Temperance Hall, Thomas Street
Formerly the Brewery of Thomas Masters.
Cirencester Temperance Hall was opened in December 1846 and on Christmas Eve a grand public tea and ceremony completed a task challenging the ‘demon drink’ in the town. A year earlier, the site of the old Masters Brewery, opposite the Friends Meeting House in Thomas Street, had been purchased by Christopher Bowly, a prominent local temperance reformer and Quaker businessman. He met the entire costs of £2,126 to construct his Temperance Hall and also bought the former ‘Hole in the Wall’ public house just down the street to help finance his project. After extensive restoration the building is now the Salvation Army Citadel.
Hole in the Wall
Next to 16 Thomas Street
Thomas Davis is noted as the licensee of the “Horse & Groom, Thomas Street” in 1822 and 1830, his beer being supplied from Thomas Masters’ brewery. The pub was sold in 1845 and demolished in the 1890s to create a garden and the private museum of Wilfred Cripps. The site is now the car park for Mead House.