(photo Everards)
Originally the Black Lion, a Georgian building. Owners of the property included Mary Hinks c1860s, William Winterton c.1870s, and Henry Illsley, who was also licensee prior to Everards’ purchase of the Black Lion c.1893. They closed it in 1916. Not until 1970 did it reopen when brewers Mitchell and Butlers bought the building from owners Midland Dynamo, and converted it back to its original use.
From 1794 to his retirement in 1806, Thomas Wheatly was victualler. The sale details on his retirement included a Malt Office with brewing vessels, coppers etc. Brewing continued through nineteenth century.
A report in the book Radical Leicester, gives James Mason as landlord in 1812, the report goes on to say that he held meetings for Framework Knitters to draw up petitions to parliament to air their grievances. By 1817 James Mason had become a maltster of some substance in the town.
Other early licensees were:
1815 Edward Sumner
1827 Joseph Farrow
Sold again in 1830, the advertisement read for sale “spirit vaults, stabling together with blacksmiths shop and slaughter house”.
Oct 1836 the headline in the LC read ‘DEPRAVITY’ when two men Edward Bishop and a boatman named Edward Vine both had been drinking in the Black Lion, they proceeded to a house of Mary Ellington in Goddard’s Yard, Belgrave Gate, one Bishop was accused of robbing Vine, Mary Ellington (whos husband had been transported) was called as a witness, she admitted that Bishop was in the habit of frequenting her house to have sex with her daughter. The magistrates however dismissed the charge observing that no jury would not give credit to the testimony of a women who prostituted her own daughter to married men. The two men however were reprimanded for their disgraceful conduct.
Again for sale in 1840, this time the advertisement included bar, large smoke room and brew house.
1840 Arthur Johnson
1846 Joseph Davis.
Licensed register lists from 1855 feature the following:
1855 John Houghton
1864 Joseph Lane
1869 John Wollerton
1875 Henry Illsley
1880 saw the Black Lion auctioned and sold together with 3 cottages for £5,000.
1886 Alexander Ross
1889 William Wright
1893 Joseph Hillier
1896 Richard Woodward
1899 Martin Collis
1902 Samuel Bramley
1904 Robert Clay
1907 George Chambers
1908 J Sharman
1909 Joseph Freer
1910 Walter Judkins
1914 Alfred Humphrey
1916 John Markham
The Black Lion closed by surrendering its licence 5th April 1916, in exchange for a beer off on Dronfield St. This was probably as well, as only the previous year on the 1st of September the landlord had been fined £10 or 51 days imprisonment for harbouring prostitutes. He was also charged and found guilty, under the Defence of the Realm Act (as it was wartime), for ‘supplying drinks to wounded soldiers’: the sentence twenty days or a £5 fine. It just wasn’t his year, as he was also charged with ‘Furious driving a cart in Granby St’, and a further 10/- or seven days was the result.
After the closure in 1916 the building was occupied (and much altered) by Midland Dynamo, prior to its reverting back to a pub called the Tavern in the Town c.1970.
TAVERN IN THE TOWN (Photo Chris Pyrah)
TAVERN
Opened as Tavern in the Town, a mainly youngsters venue, one of a few up and down the country, with the same name, as a branding concept. Dropped ‘In The Town’ to become the Tavern some time after the I.R.A bombed the pub of the same name in Birmingham, with its horrific consequences. Bass, the owners, were to sell the pub in the 1990s to Burtonwood Brewery, who, after a period changed the name to Hartley’s November 1997.
HARTLEYS
Hartley’s was soon to become run mainly but not exclusively by the Gay community. The area once thriving, surrounded by houses, was now becoming neglected, for many pubs to diversify was the only way to survive. As a feeder for the nightclubs, or niche marketing, as others in the area were also to do. Unfortunately Hartley’s diversified too far and was closed for drug offences in 2001 in an unprecedented move by Leicester’s licensing committee. A dawn raid by police following undercover investigations found drugs mainly ectasy and other class A drugs. Two people were arrested and Hartleys Dance Bar entertainment licence was revoked.
Report on Hartley’s bar closure can be found in the Leicester Mercury September 11, 2001.
STILLETOS
In the spring of 2002, the bar had reopened as a lap-dancing club by the name of Stilettos.
SPEARMINT RHINOS
In 2012, Stilettos had become Spearmint Rhino’s Gentlemen’s Club.