The George II Public House Luton
The George II June 2011
The George II Public House: 70 Bute Street, Luton.
This public house was listed by the former Department of Environment in February 1981 as Grade II, of special interest. The department dated the property to the 1870s. It is built of red brick, with a Welsh slate roof behind a plain parapet and comprises three storeys.
Sadly this property was owned by Hertfordshire brewer Simpson & Company which means that the deeds are at Hertfordshire Archives Service at Hertford rather than with Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service. The countywide licensing register of 1876 shows that the date given by the department of Environment was not entirely accurate as it states that the George II was first licensed in 1862. Simpson & Company purchased the house in 1872.
Simpson & Company was floated on the Stock Exchange under its new name of Simpson’s Brewery Limited in 1935. In 1954 Simpson’s was bought by Suffolk brewer Greene King, the name changing to Greene King (Baldock) Limited in 1963. The public house remains a Greene King property at the time of writing [2011].
Sources:
- CRT110/102: deeds at Hertfordshire Record Office: 1845-1872;
- PSL6/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Luton Petty Sessional Division: 1872-1876;
- BML10/45/10: listed in report: 1917;
- WB/Green7/7/1: LutonTown centre Historic Pubs and Breweries Trail pamphlet produced by Luton Borough Council Planning & Development Department: 1998.
Licencees: note that this is not a complete list and that dates in italics are not necessarily beginning or end dates, merely the first/last date which can be confirmed from sources such as directories and deeds:
1864: John Hopkins;
1869: Charles Hawkes;
1872: Edmund Wrigley;
1873-1877: James McKennie;
1885-1898: John Darton;
1903-1906: Gilbert Hinton;
1910: Harry Planner;
1914-1928: William Jocelyn;
1929-1933: Edward George Brown;
1933-1949: Arthur Roddell;
1949: Bertram James Berry;
1965: Peter Corbett Clay;
1969: Brian Cullen;
1975: Francis Patrick Brannigan;
1979: Patrick Joseph Maguire;
1980: Herbert Sansom;
1981: Patrick Joseph Maguire;
1986: Colin Patrick Nolan;
1989: Ian Thomas Salmon;
1990: Elizabeth Jane Adams;
1990: Elizabeth Jane Adams and James Joseph Stephenson;
1990: John Thomas Henry Marley and Elizabeth Jane Adams;
1991: George Gordon Acton and Elizabeth Jane Adams;
1991: Michael James Abraham and Elizabeth Jane Adams.