This week's archive theme ranges over local hostelries, coaching inns and watering holes in our region over the decades.
The once grand Marlborough Hotel at Cromer had seen better days when this picture was taken in July 1955. A decision had been made to demolish about three-quarters of the landmark building, leaving the ballroom fronting Prince of Wales Road and the floors above it, plus the servery. When contractors moved in the following month the familiar cupola was the first thing to go. The hotel was one of many in the town demolished or turned into flats after the war, including the Royal Links, New Haven Court, the Seaview and the Parry. The site is now a garage.
The King's Arms at Dereham in late 1961. Also visible in the line-up of businesses are Lloyds Bank, Eastmans, W.F.Chambers and Sons, Baxters and the Midland Bank. The hotel which had welcomed both Anthony Trollope and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and had been an inn for nearly 500 years, finally closed in 1962 and was demolished to make way for a branch of Woolworths.
The Crown Hotel at Fakenham, in our photo dated December 1967, closed its doors in 2009. The building dates back to the 17th century and was known as the George in the 18th and 19th centuries when it was on the post run. In June 2016 it was reported that the building would re-open as a pub/restaurant 'within weeks'.
Another venerable 15th century building in south Norfolk houses the Magpie Hotel, Harleston. Our aerial picture taken from the clock tower dates from late 1966, when the road was being re-surfaced: note the steam roller. The hotel now functions as a pub.
An old coaching inn, The Feathers Hotel on the Market Place at Holt dates back to the 16th century. At the time of our picture (December, 1970), the hotel was owned by Haven Inns.
The Globe Hotel overlooking the Tuesday Market Place at King's Lynn was sold by private treaty in September 1950 at the time of our photo. The hotel appears to date from the 17th century and was a starting place for coaches for London, Norwich, Stamford, Northampton, Bury and Newark. It was also a posting house. It is now a Wetherspoons pub/hotel.
The Black Lion Hotel on Friday Market Place at Little Walsingham in April, 1967. The site of the building was reputedly part of a Royal house, owned by Edward II. Some of the current hotel is said to date back to the 15th century. It is a pub/hotel at present.
The fate of the Suffolk Hotel at Lowestoft was sealed when it was decided in late 1971 to demolish the building, just two years short of its centenary. It was built in 1873 when the town was expanding as a fashionable watering place and stood near the site of an old coaching inn of the same name. It was described in a town guide for 1911 as 'the most comfortable hotel in the Eastern Counties', boasting a large billiards room, 'perfect sanitation' and a 'porter to meet all trains'. Edward Fitzgerald, the translator of the Rubiayat of Omar Khayyam, used to frequent the hotel.
The Sheringham hotel known for nearly 40 years as The Bijou Hotel was renamed The Two Lifeboats in May 1965. Mr HJ Child, chair of Sheringham UDC, unveils the new hotel sign depicting the lifeboats Augusta and Duncan rescuing the Norwegian barque Carolina in December 1882. Three coxswains were present at the re-launch of the hotel: Joyful West, Shrimp Davies and Tuna Harrison.
The Brandon Mansions Hotel at Great Yarmouth, which later became known as the Cavendish Hotel. The hotel was the biggest on Yarmouth seafront. It had just been sold for £50,000 at the time of our photo (August 1959) by Mr GV Larwood to Alec Taylor, owner of the nearby Carlton Hotel and of the Castle Hotel, Norwich. Mr Taylor had recently bought the nearby Victoria Hotel and the Kimberley Hotel, which were combined and renamed as the Carlton.
• If you recognise anyone in the pictures or would like to tell us more about them you can email rosemary.dixon@arhcant.co.uk
• To get a copy of one of our old photographs, visit www.edp24.co.uk/buyaphoto or telephone Diane Townsend Mon-Fri on 01603 772449
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