The Greyhound Public House Luton

The Greyhound, seen from Langley Street, about 1960 [WB/Flow4/5/Lu/Grey1]

The Greyhound Public House: 51 Park Street West, on the corner of Langley Street, Luton

The first mention of the Greyhound public house is in a directory of 1841, when George Martin was licensee. In 1873 Thomas Sworder, whose Crown and Anchor Brewery stood at the corner of Old Bedford Road and Bridge Street was leasing the Greyhound. This is shown by an agreement Sworder came to with his uncle, also Thomas Sworder, who stood surety for him in a loan he made to purchase Frederick Burr's Park Street Brewery and licensed house [Z210/81].

The countywide licensing register of 1876 notes Sworder as the owner but later documents reveal this to be an error. In 1897 Sworder sold his business to Luton rival John William Green, whose Phoenix Brewery was a stone's throw from the Greyhound on the opposite side of Park Street West. At the same time as taking over Sworder's company, Green made his newly expanded firm a public limited company under the name J. W. Green Limited. In 1897 Sworder, then Green, must still have been leasing the Greyhound because in 1898 the Greyhound's owner, W. H. Betteley conveyed the public house to J. W. Green Limited [WB/Green4/2/19]. In 1954 J. W. Green merged with Flowers Breweries and adopted the latter, better known, name, before being taken over by national concern Whitbread in 1962.

The Greyhound closed for the last time on the last day of 1969. It was subsequently demolished and a car showroom built on the site. Today [September 2009] the site is occupied by part of the new Luton Casino.

Luton Casino seen from Park Street West, part of which is the site of the Greyhound August 2009

Sources:

• Z210/81: in draft agreement between Thomas Sworder of Luton and Thomas Sworder of Hertford: 1873;
• WB/Green5/5/1: register of successive tenants of J.W.Green Limited licensed houses: 1887-1926;
• X95/301: schedules of deeds relating to Luton Brewery and public houses: 1897;
• X95/333: Abstract of Title Number 2 of Thomas Sworder & Company properties: 1897;
• X95/313-314 and Z210/84: sale catalogue: 1897;
• WB/Green1/1/1: J.W.Green Limited articles of association, trust deeds etc.: 1897-1936;
• WB/Green4/2/19: conveyed by W. H. Betteley to J. W. Green Limited: 1898;
• WB/Green6/4/1: J.W.Green Limited trade analysis ledger for individual licensed premises: 1936-1947;
• WB/Green4/2/4: certificate of title to properties belonging to J.W.Green Limited: 1936-1952
• WB/Green4/2/11: Schedule of Deeds and Documents of J.W.Green Limited property: c.1949?;
• WB/Green4/2/5: list of licensed houses of J.W.Green Limited: c.1952;
• WB/Green4/2/16: letter as to titles - J.W.Green Limited to their solicitors Lawrance, Messer & Company: 1952;
• 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;
• WB/Green4/2/19: various loose J.W.Green Limited schedules of deeds and documents: c.1954;
• WB/Flow4/5/Lu/Grey1-2: photographs: 1960s;
• WB/W4/5/Neg1: negatives of Whitbread premises including the Goat: late 20th century

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: George Martin;
1872: Martha Wheatley;
1885: William Williams;
1887: Edwards;
1889: Albert Smith;
1892: William Primett;
1894: Roberts;
1896: Albert Hunt;
1899: Sills;
1903: Moggeridge;
1903: Cornelius Aldam;
1903: Montell;
1908: John Fitzgibbon
1912: William Driver;
1923: Kate Driver;
1924: Archibald Roger Burns;
1936: Robert Charles Burns;
1940: Sidney George Rosson;
1963: Richard James Gooch;
1964: Kenneth Herbert Moores;
1964: Ronald Charles Knowles;
1966: Ronald Vernon Bell;
1968: Norman Arthur Hards
Public house closed 31st December 1969.