CHECKPOINT 7
Pubs and alehouses - a place for mariners to unwind in port
Pubs and alehouses
This small area is still packed with alehouses - just as it was centuries ago.
As with many fishing towns, Scarborough has a long history of pubs, ale houses and long rooms - somewhere for mariners to socialise, and stay warm while in port.
Inns and taverns sold wine to the middle classes (locals and visitors), while alehouses sold beer to the common folk. When hopped ale was discovered many alehouses began to brew their own beers.
By 1825 there were over 100 public houses - a vast amount for such a small town with a comparatively tiny residential population. However, the vast amount of mariners who regularly ported in the town created a captive market for more drinking holes.
The Beerhouse Act of 1830 made it all the more accessible to brew and sell beer - only adding to the boom of alehouses. With little else to do in those days, alcohol was a favourite past time of many - and due to the poor water sanitation in those days, there was a smaller risk of contracting water borne diseases and illnesses from beer than fresh water from the wells - a great excuse to drink beer!
You've already passed the Lord Nelson and Golden Ball - the latter opened in 1719 and quickly became one of the favoured alehouses for Georgian travellers. Brewing its own ale was a real draw for visitors, brewing once a year on 30th September.
You're currently outside the King Richard III, aptly named after a royal visitor. Let's find out a little more...
King Richard III
A Royal Residence
What you see now is probably a small surviving part of a much larger stately 17th century house, which housed a shipyard to the front of the building where the road stands now.
It is believed that the ground floor is as old as the 15th Century, and once belonged to Thomas Sage (a burgess and one of the town’s richest ship owners at the time). The upper floors, known as the King’s Bedchamber, are reported to have elaborately decorated plasterwork ceilings showing the York Rose (the royal Arms of Richard III) - unfortunately the upstairs is not open to the public. However, inside you can still see the remains of the fleur-de-lis decorative scrollwork frieze above the door of the East side of the building (above a stone doorway heading towards the additional seating area).
The last monarch of the House of York, King Richard III is believed to have stayed in this medieval house in 1484 during his first tour of the North. Scarborough was of a great significance to the Crown at that time, as the first efforts to build a Royal Naval force was underway, and this property made a perfect base for co-ordinating the ship building efforts of the King.
OLD PUBS AND ALEHOUSES
The Newcastle Packet is another pub bidding for the oldest standing alehouse - opened in the 1830s, it has held a couple of positions along Sandside including its current home at number 13. Named after the increasing trade connections with Newcastle, the building was originally a timber framed house, dating back to the late 1500s.
A "packet" was a name given to a boat used for transporting mail up and down the country, and prior to the completion of the York to Scarborough railway this building was once the post house. Letters will have been unloaded from the packet boat within this building, sorted and distributed around the town and surrounding villages.
Here are a few of the pubs lost to time along Sandside and Foreshore Road:
Beehive at 8 Sandside: 1823-1902
Beerhouse: Sandside circa 1840
Buoy Inn at 22 Sandside: circa 1829-1902
Dog & Duck at Quay Street/Sandside: 1822-90 (became part of The Lancaster)
Lancaster Inn at 45-46 Sandside: Closed in 2013
Old Ship at 19 Sandside: 1890-1905
The Ship: 1840-1931
Five Man Boat: Sandside circa 1822
Hope Inn: 1825-40
Ship Inn - 1747-1840
Hope & Anchor: 1823-51
King's Head: 1823-40
Lancaster Inn at 45 Sandside: 1851-1973 (replaced Shipwright Arms)
Newcastle Trader: circa 1840
Old King's Arms: circa 1840
Sailor's Return: early 1800s
Other pubs to close their doors nearby include: Spread Eagle, Sheffield Arms
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Sources: https://www.closedpubs.co.uk/yorkshire/scarborough.html and Scarborough Maritime Museum
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