The Angel Beerhouse Luton

The Antelope about 1960 [WB/Flow4/5/Lu/Ant2]: the house next door gives some impression of how 29 Albert Road may have looked

The Angel Beerhouse: 29 Albert Road, Luton

The only records held by Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service mentioning the Angel are directories and the Luton register of alehouse licences running from 1872 to 1901. This register describes the owner as Maria Knight. The countywide register of licences of 1876 gives the owner as Miss E. Knight.

The Luton register states that the beerhouse closed in that year of 1876, having had six licensees in three years, which suggests that, by then, it was no longer an economic proposition. Two other premises, the Antelope and the Windsor Castle stood in Albert Road each less than a hundred yards from the Angel.

When the house first opened is a mystery but it was certainly after 1828 [CLP13] as it is not mentioned in the countywide register of that year; this is the last countywide register held by Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service before that of 1876.

29 Albert Road was one of the houses described as unfit under Section 16 of the Housing Act 1957, along with seventeen others in Albert Road. It was then owned and occupied by S. G. Glenister and the report [BorL/EH19/2/11] stated that it had three rooms on the ground floor (a front room, back room, and addition to the back room) and two upstairs with a second floor attic. It was described as "Two storey brick built terraced building wit hslated roof (converted shop)". It was considered unfit for human habitation due to: disrepair; instability; dampness; unsatisfactory natural lighting in some rooms and on stairs and unsatisfactory facilities for the storage of food. It would have cost nearly £300 to carry out the necessary repairs and alterations and the value would then have been around £432, making such expenditure, it was judged, uneconomic. The house could not be demolished as this would affect the stability of the houses adjoining and so it was closed and rendered derelict in 1958, the owner/occupier being found alternative accommodation in Hillcroft Close, Leagrave. All Albert Road was eventually demolished resulting in the houses that stand there today.

The site of the Angel June 2010

Sources:

• PSL6/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Luton Petty Sessional Division: 1872-1901;
• BorL/EH19/2/11: Borough of Luton slum clearance file: 1958

Licensees: Note that this is not a complete list; italics indicate licensees whose beginning and/or end dates are not known 

1872-1873: Eli Peach;
1873: John Adderton;
1873-1874: Henry Sangster;
1874: Robert Bradford;
1874-1875: Benjamin Mould;
1875-1876: Edward Giles
Beerhouse closed 1876