Photo above: Classic use of advertising on a small beer house. Photo is from John Zienteck’s collection.
Circa 1865-1954. Possessed its own brewing plant which was sold in August 1891.
Early licensees included: 1867, John Leader. Circa 1893, George Smith – who was fined 5/- for obstructing the highway in Humberstone Rd with his horse and cart. 1895, William Veasy. 1900, Thomas Boulter. 1902, George Dalby.
The Earl Dysart stood on the corner of Brunswick Street and Dysart Street. The beer house closed on the 8th of January 1954.
The area around Wharf Street consisted of numerous streets of terraced housing, many classed uninhabitable after World War II. These slum conditions had existed for a long time, with poor sanitation and living conditions being evident in Victorian times. Infant deaths were a feature also, large families and overcrowding meant suffocations of infants due to five or six to a bed. This was seen at inquests held at the Earl Dysart.
Emma Cayless, aged four, served as another example of the hazards of a poor child’s life. Emma lived a couple of doors from the pub and was burnt to death after her mother left her in the house whilst she went an errand. On returning, she heard screams and found poor Emma’s nightdress had caught fire. The mother was severely burned trying to extinguish the burning nightdress, within a few hours Emma gradually sank and died from the horrific burns. This was not though an isolated incident during the 1890s as the Earl Dysart was to house many inquests.
The good old days it wasn’t.