The Wyvern Inn Luton

The Wyvern Inn about 1960 [WB/Flow4/5/Lu/Wyv2]

The Wyvern Inn, 4 Eaton Green Road, Luton

The site of the Wyvern Inn was bought by J.W. Green Ltd from B. H. Hartop and others in 1938, but the public house did not open until 1953 when the Dew Drop Inn in Upper George Street was closed and the license transferred to the Wyvern. A list of licensed houses belonging to J. W. Green drawn up c.1952 includes a note against the entry for the Dew Drop that it is "to be replaced by pre-fab in Eaton Green Road, Luton". The name may have been chosen due to the proximity of the public house to the Vauxhall car manufacturing works, where from 1948 to 1957 a car named the Wyvern was in production. It is possible that this car got its name due to the imaginary beast on Vauxhall’s badge, which is in fact a griffin, being mistaken for a wyvern.

Internal and external views of the Wyvern c.1965-70 [Z1306/75/10/22/1]

In 1954 J. W. Green Limited merged with Midlands brewers Flowers Breweries. Although Greens were the major partner the Flowers name was better known and so the new company used the Flowers trademark. In 1962 the firm was taken over by Whitbread. In 2002 it was sold with the rest of Whitbread’s public houses to Enterprise Inns. The Wyvern was closed in 2014 and at the time of writing [2016] the premises are in use as a convenience store.

References:

• WB/Green4/2/5: list of licensed houses of J.W.Green Limited: c.1952;
• WB/Green4/2/19: various loose J.W.Green Limited schedules of deeds and documents: c.1954;
• Z1306/75/10/22/1: postcard with internal and external views of the Wyvern: c.1966
• WB/Flow4/5/Lu/Wyv1-2: photographs of Wyvern Inn: 1960s;
• WB/Green4/2/17: Second Schedule of Trust Deed from J.W.Green Limited to London Assurance to secure 1,205,000 5% First Mortgage Debenture Stock: 1952-1972

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:

1953: Harold Higgins;
1957: Richard James Gooch;
1958: Arthur Edward Norris;
1961: Leonard Charles Child;
1964: Alexander Green;
1966: Roy Cyril Henman;
1971: Norman Arthur Hards and Derrick Louis Pettengell;
1981: Richard Owen West and Robert Huw Bendall;
1983: Roger George Ernest Coomber and Robert Huw Bendall;
1985: Keith Budd and Robert Huw Bendall;
1986: Graham Dunscombe and Robert Huw Bendall;
1987: Graham Dunscombe and Stanley Innes;
1989: David Evans and Stanley Innes;
1991: Martin Peter Darby and Stanley Innes;
1992: Daniel Thompson and Stanley Innes