STOCKDALE ARMS, EAST STREET

Corner of East Street and South Albion Street.

In 1843, various Lodge meetings were held here, including Oddfellows, with the Hearts of Oak prominent in the 1870s. The Stockdale Arms – or Hotel – as it was sometime called had its own brewhouse, club room, skittle alley together with six bedrooms.

Thomas Williams was landlord for many years from the early 1840s, through his wife, Elizabeth’s, death of bronchitis aged forty eight in 1859, until his own death in 1867.

During Thomas’ time, an inquest was held at the Stockdale in Oct 1885 on the death of Anne Chipping, a young women who had been travelling on a train through Leicester, which collided with a goods train. The force of the collision threw her across the carriage, sustaining fatal injuries.

The driver William Wain, was charged with manslaughter and found guilty, although the jury suggested his view of the red danger signal could have been obscured by some trees.  The jury recommended removal of the offending trees.

A couple of months later at the Assizes in December William Wain surrendered to his bail, as the L&NWRail Co offered no evidence for the prosecution the charge was overturned and William Wain discharged (LM)

In June 1899, the pub was bought by All Saints Brewery after leasing it for ten years from Welch Brothers St Martins Brewery. (BHS)

The Stockdale closed in 1956 on the 16th of December, the licence transferred to the newly built John O Gaunt.

The building survived for a few more years as a café, before demolition.