Wellington Passage was situated on the eastern side of the present-day John Lewis store and led north towards Albion Street.
In 1883 R. Thomas is listed as a brewer at the Unicorn.
The owner of the Unicorn Inn as documented in the 1891 licensing book is R.H. Bayley & Co., Gloucester. R.H. Bailey & Co. were brewers at the City Brewery in Quay Street in Gloucester, having a registered address at 71 Eastgate Street. When the business of R.H.Bailey & Co. were offered for auction in November 1894 they had 15 public houses in their estate scattered around Gloucestershire. As well as the Unicorn in Cheltenham Bailey’s had at least two tied houses in the Forest of Dean (the Cock Inn near Blakeney and the Seven Stars in Cinderford). According to the Brewery History Society their public houses were sold individually but the brewing side of the business was bought by Tayler & Co. of the Cotswold Brewery in Northleach. An earlier reference to the City Brewery in Gloucester in an advertisement dated January 1870 give details that: Beaman, Jeans & Co’s Noted Gloucester Ales in the finest possible condition. Prices 10d per gallon upwards. Samples may be tested daily at the brewery from ten to five. Liberal service to the trade. Agents wanted where already not represented.The City of Gloucester Brewery, Quay Street, Gloucester.
Records seem to suggest that at auction the Unicorn Inn was sold to R.W. Miller & Co., of the Stokes Croft Brewery in Bristol. The 1903 petty sessional licensing book confirms them as owners. Miller’s Pale Ale Brewery was registered as a limited company in December 1893 lasting just another eighteen years before being acquired by George’s Bristol Brewery in 1911.
The Unicorn Inn was licensed as an ale house. In 1891 the annual rateable value was set at £72.5s.0d. which, for reasons unknown, decreased by seventeen pounds to £55.5s.0d. in 1903.
Landlords at the Unicorn Inn include:
1878 R. Thomas (listed as a brewer in 1883)
1883,1885 Mrs Emma Eliza Thomas
1891 Albert Bailey
1902 William Victor Evans
1903 Albert Edwin Malkin
1906 Frederick George Evans
1919 Percy Peters
1926,1927 Alfred Cecil Mills
1939 Cliff Merrick
