The Royal Hotel was numbered 97 High Street in the original address system. In 1826 Thomas Haines Junior ran fly wagons to London from the Royal Hotel yard: ‘every day except Sunday through Northleach, Burford, Witney, Oxford & Wycombe in two days to the Blossoms Inn, Lawrence Lane, Cheapside, London’.
Charles L. Sweeting & Frederick Moore were the owners of the Royal Hotel in 1891 and they operated the premises free from brewery tie. The Royal Hotel was a well-appointed, fully licensed ale house with an annual rateable value in 1891 of £267.15s.0d. In 1903, twelve years later, ownership had transferred to Catherine Marian Potter and the rates had increased by twenty-one pounds and five shillings to £289.0s.0d. The Royal remained trading as a free house.
The Royal Hotel was purchased by F.W. Woolworth & Co. in February 1957. Their department store occupied the site of the Royal Hotel. It was redeveloped as the Beechwood Shopping Centre, but the area is now occupied by the new John Lewis store.
Landlords / Proprietors at the Royal Hotel include:
1830 Thomas Haines
1856,1859 Richard Aveson
1970 G.F. Nicholls
1878 George Stafford (listed as George Spafford)
1883,1885 Thomas Twamley
1891 Emma Goddard
1903 Catherine Marian Potter
1906,1919 Herbert Clifford
1927 Trust Houses Ltd.
Royal Hotel Vaults, Albion Street
Walter William Spragg is recorded as licensee of the Royal Vaults in Albion Street in 1926/1927 and the Grosvenor Brewery Inn in 1939
Landlords:
1883 H. Mansell
1926,1927 Walter William Spragg
