Photo above: Looking down Allington St from Cranbourne Street, circa 1969. Opposite the Great Northern (Bass House), stands the old Cranbourne Arms (white building boarded up). Denis Callow collection
On the north east side corner with Allington Street, compulsory purchased in 1968 during redevelopment of an area that backed on to the Great Northern Railway Station.
One of three Great Northern pubs in Leicester, sometime known as the ‘Little’ Northern.
Licence granted 24th March 1874, Henry White to Frederick White owner and licensee, Frederick died aged only 35, Sarah Ann White 1876, Henry Cooper 1877, James Burgess 1879, Sarah Ann Cooper 1883, C
Originally a home brew pub, together with its brew house the Great Northern was auctioned off on the 11th of October 1888. It was then supplied by Brunt & Bucknall Brewers of Woodville Derby, followed by Thomas Salt, and finally Bass until its closure.
In 1879, the landlord Henry Cooper was in court for assaulting his wife Sarah Ann Cooper in whose name the pub was in, although his name was as licensee, he knocked her down and as she was pregnant the baby was lost, surviving only six hours, Henry Cooper was remanded on two or three occasions as Sarah Ann was still too ill to attend, the licence was in the meantime transferred to James Burgess with Sarah Ann gaining the licence back later.
Charles Woodford 1888, in 1893 the licensee Charles Woodford was fined for being drunk on his own premises. Henry King Skinner became licensee July that year, George Thomas Cooper Cross 1900, Henry Greasley 1902,
A strange report was forwarded to the magistrates when on the 6th of December 1914, Inspector North documented that the Great Northern was a women’s house, being frequented mainly females who outnumbered men by four to one. A seemingly rarity, the significance has yet to come to light.
Edward ‘Ted’ Keech licensee 1915, James William Oaks 1920. Percy William Wilkins 1931,
The pub underwent alterations in 1936. George Glover landlord 1939, James Arthur 1944, John Moffitt 1951.
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