In 1877, James Webster was granted a licence to have a piano in his commercial room. At the next sessions he unsuccessfully applied to move the piano to the smoke room.
The Leicester Chronicle reported a strange case in February 1874, when Henry Johnson hired a cab from town to pick up visitors from the station. The cab took them to the nearby Midland Arms where they all stayed until turning out time. The cab driver then took Johnson and one of the visitors home, and asked Johnson for 7 shillings for the fare as he had been hired for most of the day. This was promised to be paid the following day, but Johnson then refused to pay citing various excuses. One of the visitors, Charles Vallance, corroborated the drivers evidence and Johnson was ordered to pay the fare. The visitors were all black and the Chronicle’s liberal use of the ‘n’ word to describe them is quite shocking to us today.
The Midland Arms was frequented mainly by rail workers from the adjacent Midland railway station. Also post office workers, again from nearby. It originally had stables at the rear for horse drawn delivery from the railway and was later used by the G.P.O horses.
It closed its doors in September 1963 when owners, Everards, surrendered the beer licence in order to open a large new pub in Wigston, the Abbeydale.
Licensee Arthur Hunt moved on to another Everards pub, the Dannett Tavern in King Richards Road.(photos Tony Booker)
Rail workers and regulars on the last night at the Midland Arms in 1963 include left, Les Marsden watching the mild go down, and right ‘Lucy’ Clare, Len Blackwell ‘Snowy’ and Arthur Elliott. The celebrations were muted however and one railwayman said ‘It came as a terrible shock when I heard the Midland was closing. It’s one of the friendliest inns. I’ve a good mind to give up drinking.’