There is very little information about the Fountain in the High Street. It is listed in the 1839 Robson’s Directory for Cheltenham when Jesse Castle was the occupying landlord. He was still there two years later according to the Cheltenham Annuaire. It is then known that Jesse Castle left the licensing trade and went on to work in Cheltenham Workhouse, dealing with tramps. Hunts Directory of 1847 gives detail that Edward Raven was landlord of the Fountain Inn, High Street.
In 1870, twenty-three years later, the Phoenix Inn was operating at the address of 221 High Street. In 1891 the premises was called the Nelson Inn. The Cheltenham Original Brewery were the owners of the Nelson Inn in 1891 and 1903. Classified as an alehouse it had an annual rateable value of £21.5s.0d., increasing by four pounds and five shillings to £25.10s.0d. in 1903.
The site of the Fountain / Phoenix and Nelson Inn is near the brand-new apartment block directly opposite the Shamrock (Shakespeare Inn) in the Lower High Street. Until recently the land was occupied by a second-hand furniture warehouse. The adjacent West End car park might actually be where the pub was situated as Phoenix Passage runs alongside.
Landlords:
1839 Jesse Castle
1844 Thomas Cole
1847 Edward Raven
