Martin Edwards, a fellow pub historian, has compiled a list of pubs in Cheltenham in the year 1844. Included is the Young Prince of Wales in Albion Street. It is also mentioned in the 1881 census.
There is no reference to the Young Prince of Wales in the 1891 licensing book.
Landlord:
1844 Charles Long
Geoff,
Before I knew how to see the 1855-7 Old Town Survey map online at Know Your Place, I spent aeons trying to find the Young Prince of Wales in Albion Street. I couldn’t tell you how long or what I searched… I even wondered why it would be called the Young Prince of Wales, and thought it might have been named for Queen Victoria’s second child and first son, Albert Edward (“Bertie”) – the future Edward VII. He was born on 9 November 1841 and created Prince of Wales on 8 December the same year – young Prince of Wales indeed!
Anyway, I eventually came across some documents on the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub website – “draft deed of enfranchisement of a parcel of land adjacent to Grosvenor Terrace and the Young Prince of Wales beer shop” dated 3 July 1879. (There was some whoop-whooping , I can tell you!). And it also covered another plot: “also a further plot of land adjacent to the first in Grosvenor Street abutting a slaughterhouse.” So I knew it was near Grosvenor Terrace and Grosvenor Street at least. I had no idea where a slaughterhouse might have been nearby, but it was a start!
I tried to piece it all together – 2 abutting plots of land, one adjacent to Grosvenor Terrace and the second to Grosvenor Street, so between the two – and the first plot was adjacent to the Young Prince of Wales which the gloucestershirepubs website listing said was in Albion street…so the land had to be very near the junction of Grosvenor Terrace and Albion Street, which meant to abut something in Grosvenor Street, it had to be across from the Grosvenor Brewery (where the multi-storey car park is now!).
I checked the directories and found that a wardrobe dealership was located there at one point. Might it have been aligned to that? Mrs. Mary Ann Cooper who ran the Grosvenor Brewery at one point was also listed as a wardrobe dealer (premises west of the brewery), so why not? And if that was the main business, that might help explain why the Young Prince of Wales was pretty much invisible in directories. I was convinced.
And then two things close together – 1) I got to see a copy of the 1844 Harper’s Directory in Cheltenham Library and found “Grosvenor terrace, Long Chas. YP of Wales bh” (Get in!) and 2) I found out how to access the 1855-7 Old Town Survey map on the Know Your Place website at maps.bristol.gov.uk and there, at the junction of Albion Street and Grosvenor Terrace, across from the Grosvenor Brewery was Prince of Wales B.H. (Yippee-ki-yay! Gotcha!)
Grosvenor Terrace was arrow-straight back then and didn’t curve rather to the east at the junction…so the Young Prince of Wales was probably partly in the current carriageway near the junction rather than completely under the multi-storey car park, but hey, that’s close enough – across Grosvenor Terrace from the Grosvenor Brewery – and still going in 1855-7.
I don’t know how long it existed before 1844 (not earlier than late 1841 when “Bertie” was made Prince of Wales – not with that name anyway), and I don’t know when it closed…and I still only know one landlord for sure – Charles Long 1844 – but I think we can now be sure of the location.
Cheers,
Alan Jones