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Monument details
| HER Number: | TR 15 NW 1647 |
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| Type of record: | Monument |
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| Name: | Eight Bells. 34 London Road. |
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Summary
The Eight Bells on London Road functioned during the 19th Century, and continues to be a public house today.
| Grid Reference: | TR 1407 5827 |
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| Map Sheet: | TR15NW |
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| Parish: | CANTERBURY, CANTERBURY, KENT |
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Monument Types
- INN (Post Medieval to Unknown - 1870 AD?)
Full description
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The Canterbury UAD states that this inn previuously belonged to Makeson & Co/Whitbread.
In the City Archives there are some important 19th century documents for 1837, 1846 and 1849 written very clearly and headed: 'List of Persons Licensed at the General Annual Meeting, 6th September 1849'. In that list there were 136 Licences issued, including: Eight Bells St. Dunstan's Street and Eight Bells King Street. There is no Eight Bells, London Road in the lists for 1837, 1846 or 1849.
The Directories, listing all properties in Canterbury by streets for 1838 and 1847, are also quite clear that there was an inn called Eight Bells in St. Dunstan's Street, with Thomas James as innkeeper in 1847. By 1889 the Directory names Richard Hopkins as innkeeper of Eight Bells, London Road.
Whitbread state from their documents: When this property was included in an omnibus conveyance of 1870 it was described as 'a public house called or known by the name or sign of The Three Queens but then called or known by the sign of the Eight Bells …abutting to the turnpike road leading from Canterbury to London …occupation of Hogben and then Thomas James' and were originally owned by Sankey (The Sankey's were a brewing family in Canterbury in the early 1800's and were sold off piecemeal by the Rev. Sankey).
There could have been a coaching inn on this site at some time earlier and there was an inn demolished in 1898 and rebuilt in 1900. An interesting advertisemment in a Directory 1902/3 reads: C. Winchester, Eight Bells, 34 London Road. Horses and carriages let on hire for private parties, weddings, etc. A resident told me that there were, at one time, stables at the rear of the inn.
Wilmot, E., 1988, Inns of Canterbury (Monograph). SKE29737.
Sources and further reading
| Cross-ref.
| Source description | | --- | Monograph: Wilmot, E.. 1988. Inns of Canterbury. |
