Clarence Hotel, Clarence Street, Cheltenham

 

This one took me a long time to sort out. As a long-time Cheltenham resident, I always associated the building in Crescent Parade with the large royal crest (John Dower House – the ex-Gloucestershire constabulary HQ, and later home of the Countryside Commission) with the Clarence Hotel. So your assertion (and listing in directories I checked) that it had a 19 Clarence Street address was confusing. But I eventually got it all sorted. You will have to forgive me, but I need to go a bit further back and give a little further history to explain. 

 

In medieval times Cheltenham’s old Court House existed somewhere off St. George’s Place (which was previously called Stills Lane – the only thoroughfare southwards off the High Street apart from very small lanes). Nobody seems to be sure where exactly this was located, but it seems to be generally assumed to have been somewhere behind where St. Matthews church is now. It fell out of use during the Civil War in the mid-1660s. 

 

There was also an old medieval manor house. I believe this was a separate building to the old Court House, but it too was off St George’s Place / Stills Lane.

 

Later, in 1730, when Dame Frances Stapleton came to Cheltenham,she purchased a considerable parcel of land off St. George’s Place encompassing what would later become Clarence Street running back towards Royal Well Place and had a substantial house built where the old manor house used to exist, around where St. Matthews Church would later be built. She called this Cheltenham Court, but it later got called the Great House. This was an L-shaped building, with its main facade aligned east-west and a north-south running guest wing. It is thought that a second wing on the other side had originally planned (which would have made it U-shaped), but never got completed. The exact date of construction appears somewhat unsure, but a feature in Cheltenham Local History Society Newsletter no.88 from July 2017 by Anthea Jones, entitled, “Accidental light on the date when Cheltenham’s Great House was erected” references a document from old Church of England Diocesan records (1742) which refers to it being “new erected.” Perhaps Dame Frances’s departure in 1743 following the death of one of her sons in Bath in 1740 meant that it was never actually completely completed as intended. Dame Frances was in fact pre-deceased by both of her sons, Sir William Stapleton and James Russell Stapleton. The family wealth came largely from owning sugar plantations in the West Indies and her second husband was governor of the Leeward Islands – so it was built on the West African slave trade.Dame Frances died in 1746.

 

That notwithstanding, the property – still owned by the Stapleton estate – was leased by the lessee of the original spa and became a major guest house for gentry and visitors of high social status coming to Cheltenham to take the waters, like Dr. Samuel Johnson, and it remained an absolute hub of the town’s social activities for around a century. It became variously known as The Great House, Grove House and Mrs. Field’s Boarding House. For a while it vied with the newly re-built Assembly Rooms (1816) as the real social core of Cheltenham, but its fortunes were diminishing. 

 

Around 1812, a new boarding house, managed by Richard Liddell was built very nearby to the east of the Great House facing onto Crescent Parade. This was Cheltenham’s first purpose-built boarding house for guests visiting the newly-burgeoning town (following George III’s 1788 visit to take the waters). Known as Liddell’s Boarding House, this is where the Duchess of Clarence stayed when she visited Cheltenham to open the newly created Clarence Street in 1827 (cut across what used to be land of the Great House). It was following this stay, that permission was sought to called the property the Clarence (or Royal Clarence) Hotel. When this was granted, a local artist was commissioned to create the royal crest that still graces the building now as a residential property. The Duke and Duchess of Clarence would go on to become King William IV and Queen consort Adelaide in 1830 until his death in 1837. (Incidentally, although he and Adelaide had no children, which is why his niece became Queen Victoria, William did sire 10 illegitimate offspring with the unmarried actress “Mrs.” Jordan, who appeared at the theatre visited by George III and his entourage in 1788. William – the Sailor King – unceremoniously dumped her and the kids for the less scandalous alignment with Adelaide! Royals, eh!!!).

 

Richard Liddell left the Boarding House to become manager of the newly built Queens Hotel in 1838, and you can follow his trajectory from what I emailed earlier about Letters Wine Vaults in the Promenade. The fixtures of the Clarence Hotel were auctioned and the building itself eventually became the Gloucestershire Constabulary HQ and court – right through to the 1960s.

 

The Great House itself was eventually demolished in 1859. St Matthews Church wasn’t built until the 1870s (opened 1879), but when St. Mary’s was closed for several years for much needed restoration, a temporary replacement church made of sheet iron on a wooden frame was hastily constructed where St. Matthews would later be in what had been the grounds of the Great House. And even though St. Mary’s reopened in 1861, the temporary metal clad church proved so popular it remained in use until 1877!

 

Now to the Clarence Hotel Tap located in St.George’s Place. This seems to have been created for the Clarence Hotel that was in Crescent Place, possibly even in a building associated originally with the Great House (its gateway and gatehouse were located in St. George’s Place, with a carriage driveway leading to the house itself). And remember, as a large house with a guest wing, it probably had its own brewhouse too – most large houses then would have.

 

The Clarence Hotel Tap appears to have outlasted the Clarence Hotel itself – but the location in St. George’s Place now makes more sense, as it would likely have been pretty much directly behind the Liddell Boarding House / Clarence Hotel. You have a landlord listed for 1844, Joseph Wiltshire, and the Clarence Tap (note, no hotel in the name) appears in the 1847 Hunt & Co Directory listings under “Inns and Public Houses” still with Joseph Wiltshire as landlord and a St. George’s Place address. (There is also a Clarence Inn with a Clarence Street address listed under “Tradespeople”, but we will get to that in a moment!)

 

The Clarence Tap is also listed in the 1848 Edwards Directory under “Inns and Public Houses” with a St. George’s Place address, but by then C. Jones is the landlord. In the 1850 Edwards Directory it is listed similarly, but with T. Hooper as landlord. (In this one though, what was formerly listed as the Clarence Inn in Clarence Street, is then listed as the Clarence Hotel under “Inns and Hotels.”

 

The Clarence Tap remains listed under “Inns and Public Houses” in the 1851 and 1852 Edwards Directories, still with T. Hooper as landlord. However, by the time of the 1855-7 Old Town Survey, although there are some buildings shown across St. George’s Place from the Old Farm Cottage just south of the Shamrock Tavern and Neptune Brewery, they are not named as the Clarence Tap or even marked B.H. for Beer House. So I assume that the Clarence Tap had closed by then. The buildings I refer to were halfway in the back of St. Matthews and halfway in the building of the Thai Emerald restaurant etc. These I would assume were approximately where the entrance to the Great House estate had been, with its gatehouse.

 

So, although I don’t have anything earlier for the Clarence  Tap than 1844, I would assume that it existed earlier (as the Clarence Hotel came into being sometime after the 1827 Royal stay at Liddell’s Boarding House but isn’t listed in the 1839 Annuaire – the last Annuaire listing is 1838 under “L” as “Liddell, R., Clarence Hotel.”

 

So the known landlords/proprietors for the original Liddell’s Boarding House / Clarence Hotel in Crescent Place and the Clarence Tap in St. George’s Place are:

 

Liddell’s Boarding House / Clarence Hotel Crescent Place

Circa. 1810 – 1838 Richard Liddell

 

Clarence Tap St. George’s Place

1844  Joseph Wiltshire (Harper’s Directory)

1847 Joseph Wiltshire (Hunt & Co. Directory)

1848 C. Jones (Annuaire) 

1850 – 1852 T. Hooper (Edwards Directory)

 

 

Now to the second or new Clarence Hotel in Clarence Street

 

As we have seen, this started off listed as the Clarence Inn in the 1839 Annuaire, listed under “Tradespeople” with R. Stokes as landlord. This was the year that the Clarence Hotel was no longer listed.

 

It is listed under “Resident Tradespeople” in the 1840 & 1841 Annuaires with a Clarence Street address, no landlord name in 1840, W. Mann in 1841. I couldn’t find a listing in the 1842 or 1843 Annuaires, but the 1844 Annuaire is the first time I found it listed as the Clarence Hotel with a Clarence Street address and R. [Robert] Leader as landlord/proprietor. This is then the same in every Annuaire through to 1849. However, in the 1847 Hunt & Co. Directory it is still listed as the Clarence Inn under “Inns and Public Houses” with a Clarence Street address and Robert Leader as landlord.This is also the case in the 1848 Edwards Directory. In the 1850 Edwards Directory though, under “Inns and Hotels” it is listed as the Clarence Hotel with the address 19 Clarence Street and still with Robert Leader as proprietor. From all of this, we can see that all the entries relate to the same premises.

 

It is listed as the Clarence Hotel in both the 1851 & 1852 Annuaires and Edwards Directories, and the 1853 – 1858 Annuaires, all with Robert Leader, then in the 1859 with Mrs. Leader.

 

It took me ages to get my head around the fact that there had been 2 different Clarence Hotels – one in Crescent Place and the other in Clarence Street, and even when it did dawn on me that this couldn’t have been the building on the junction of the two streets, it took a long time to work out where no. 19 would have been. But I got there in the end. No. 19 Clarence Street was on the north side pretty much opposite where the old Post Office was (the Mayflower Chinese) – just about where the underground car park entrance is now in what used to be the old Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society Building. The back is pretty much directly across from the entrance to Cheltenham Minster / St. Mary’s. (And I really only realised this when trying to identify a Beer House marked on a map, and correlating that with the in-order street listings in later directories. I think my knowledge that the original Clarence Hotel had been the building in Crescent Place, blindsided and biased me initially – and for quite some time!).

 

Anyway, I got there in the end, and here is a list of the proprietors I found for the second/new Clarence Hotel at 19 Clarence Street:

 

1839 – 1843 R. [Robert] Leader – listed as the Clarence Inn Clarence Street (Annuaire) – also 1844 Annuaire listed as the Clarence Hotel for the first time – and every Annuaire on until 1858 plus 1847 Hunt & Co. Directory; 1848 & 1850 Edwards Directory still as Clarence Inn and 1851 & 1852 Edwards Directories as Clarence Hotel

1859 Mrs. Leader (Annuaire)

 

1860 & 1861 J.C. Stevens (Annuaire)

 

1862 A. Stevens (Annuaire) but listed as the Clarence Inn again, still 19 Clarence Street

 

1863 listed as the Clarence Hotel again “Wyatt & Co.”

 

1868 W. Martindale (always Clarence Hotel from here onwards, unless otherwise stated)

 

1870 you have Richard Mekin also 1872-3 Royal Directory

 

1876 John Robinson (Royal Directory) listed as Clarence Commercial Hotel

1878 James Samuel King (Royal Directory) listed as Clarence Commercial Hotel – also 1879 & 1880 Annuaires listed as Clarence Hotel and 1880-1 & 1883-4 Post Office Directories listed as Clarence Commercial Hotel. You have him listed for 1885 also.

 

1887 – 1890 S. King (Annuaires)

 

1891-2 James Samuel King (Post Office Directory) listed as Clarence Commercial Hotel

1892 – 1895 listed as Clarence under “Hotels” no proprietor name

 

1896 Mr. W.M. Hudson (Annuaire)

 

1897 Mr. H. King (Annuaire)

 

1898 listed in Annuaire no proprietor name

 

1899 Mr.Wakefield

 

1900 – 1902 Mr. W. Durham (Annuaires) – also 1902 Built-Leonard

 

1903 – 1906 G.H. [George Harry] Pratley (Annuaires) –  plus 1904 & 1905 Built-Leonard

 

1907 Mr. T. Parker (Annuaire)

 

1908 – 1911 Mr. C.H. Pratley (Annuaires) – plus 1911 Built-Leonard

 

1912 Clarence Hotel listed no proprietor name

 

The Clarence Hotel is not listed in the 1913 Looker-On – in its Clarence Street listing it skips from 18 Cheltenham & Gloucestershire Building Society – Mr. D. Lewis, J.P. to 20 Messrs. Shirer & Haddon. In the 1922 Built-Leonard Shirer & Haddon are listed for 19 & 20 Clarence Street, so I assume they took over the old Clarence Hotel premises in 1912/13.

 

Apologies that was a bit of a long one, but I think it finally sorts out the Clarence Hotel and Clarence Tap, and is probably even news to most Cheltonians (that there were 2 different Clarence Hotels).

 

Cheers,

 

Alan Jones