The Elephant and Castle Hotel Linslade

The Elephant and Castle about 1900 [Z1432/2/13/21/5]

Elephant & Castle Commercial Inn: corner of Station Road and Old Road, Linslade

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service is not rich with information on Linslade licensed premises; owing to the fact that Linslade was in Buckinghamshire until 1965, no licensing records are held by the service.

The Elephant & Castle Commercial Inn, or Hotel, was built about 1840 to serve the London & North Western Railway Company station which opened in 1838. That station was some three hundred yards north of the current building. Directories note that James Sheerman was victualler from at least 1864 to at least 1869 - both he and his wife have stained glass windows in nearby Saint Barnabas church and later kept The Hunt Hotel.

In 1900 the Elephant and Castle Hotel, with other property of the late Edward Lawford, was sold at auction by Cumberland and Hopkins of Leighton Buzzard [BML10/42/357]. It was described as "a fully-licensed hunting and commercial hotel distinguished as "The Elephant and Castle" with extensive stabling, close to Leighton Station, as let to Mr.E.Lawrence at £120 0s. 0d. per annum".

Site of the Elephant and Castle Hotel October 2008

The premises comprised:

Basement

• Two large beer cellars;
• Two wine and spirit cellars

Ground Floor

• Hall and vestibule entrance from station approach;
• Bar;
• Bar parlour;
• Smoke room;
• Coffee room;
• Commercial room;
• A side portico entrance from Old Road;
• Dining room;
• Wine and spirit store;
• Two private sitting rooms;
• Billiard room;
• Kitchen;
• Larder;
• Scullery;
• Coal yard outside.

First Floor

• The Masonic or Club Room (59 feet by 21 feet) "divided by a wood partition into two rooms if required");
• Ante-room;
• Two store rooms;
• Lavatory;
• W.C.;
• Bath room;
• Eight bedrooms;
• Principal and secondary staircases.

Second Floor

• Five bedrooms

The hotel closed in 1970 and was demolished and the current [2008], now derelict, structure erected.

Plan showing the Elephant and Castle [X410/19]

References:

• BML10/44/7: auction sale at Elephant & Castle: 1865;
• BML10/44/10: auction sale held at Elephant & Castle: 1866;
• BML10/44/11: auction sale held at Elephant & Castle: 1868;
• BML10/44/23: auction sale at Elephant & Castle: 1887;
• BML10/42/357: sale particulars: 1905;
• BML10/44/54: auction sale at Elephant & Castle: 1932;
• BML10/44/68: Auction sale at Elephant & Castle: 1941;
• Z1105/1: Liquor Licence Traders Survey form: 1960. 

List of Licensees: note that this is not a complete list; entries in italics refer to licensees where either beginning or end, or both, dates are not known:

1841-1847: Thomas William Nicholls;
1850-1851: Henry Richardson and John Richardson, victuallers
1861: William Merry, hotel keeper;
1864-1869: James Sheerman;
1871-1879: Charles John Morgan, hotel keeper;
1881: James R.Alcock, hotel keeper;
1883: William Claridge;
1891: John Henry Miller, hotel keeper;
1895-1903: Edward Lawrence, licensed victualler;
1907: William Clayton;
1911-1925: Joseph Hearn;
1928: Roland Brown Manning;
1931: Arthur Samuel Mundy;
1935: William Spencer Madden;
1939: Agnes Quick
Hotel closed in 1970