Undated photograph of Colton Street, the side in which the Square & Compass was located – possibly the white building in the centre.
The sign of the Square and Compass usually represented the tools used by carpenters and stonemasons, alternatively it was a Masonic Emblem.
William Fewkes was victualler in 1845. He lived here in 1841, but was listed then as a coach maker. Fewkes auctioned the Square & Compass in 1848 together with adjoining shop brewhouse and outbuildings measuring 160 sq yards.
Isaac Tarry was victualler in 1853, being fined £2 for keeping his house open on a Sunday. William Wood had a short spell in charge, offering the beerhouse for sale with all f&f in April 1855. The premises proved suitable for Thomas Marlow to move his tripe business into, which he did in 1856, advertising ‘Hot tripe suppers every Fri and Sat Eve, for the convenience of my country friends, Tripe Dinners every Sat-Sun lunch 12-2pm.’ Thomas Marlow was one of many tripe dressers in Leicester, it being a mainstay of peoples’ diet.
Barry Lount recalls: ‘As a child my mother used to send me to the local butchers for tripe for our supper, when it was boiling the stench made me heave, how the Square and Compass smelt is for me not difficult to imagine I would give that one a wide berth unless I was starving, which I suppose many were.’
Thomas Norman, originally from Oadby, called in at the Square & Compass after missing the train to the Nottingham Goose Fair. Thomas ordered some tripe but, whilst eating, suddenly toppled forward and died. A surgeon was called and gave a verdict of syncope (sudden death).
On the 21st of April 1860, the Square & Compass was offered for auction at the Bell Hotel, being advertised as having clubroom, brew house and skittle alley. Thomas Marlow, however, stayed on for another twenty-years, running both the tripe dressing and beerhouse.
Sometime after 1881, Thomas Marlow passed his business on to William Burgess, who carried on the tripe dressing business from the Square & Compass.
By 1890, William Marlow was host and tripe dresser, and in 1898, William Brooks was listed as both, as was William Garret in 1900.
No certain date as to when the Square and Compass closed. It was sometime prior to 1909, when a couple of ornate buildings were erected on either side of Colton Street. Arthur Isaac Groves was a freeman of the City and major benefactor.
Photo credit: Taken from the story of Leicester’s disabled entitled From Strength to Strength by Derek Seaton.
The Groves went on to buy quite a few houses and cottages in Colton Street and the yards to build the Crippled Peoples’ Workshop.