Recorded as early as 1600 as the Magpie. Seems to have been known as the Crown & Magpie or Magpie & Crown from around 1800.
In 1843, the pub was for sale complete with stable and brewhouse.
Circa 1848, the Victoria Passage was built on the site. That year John Clarke passed the licence to James Clarke.
In 1800, corporation records (1242) ‘the Magpie & Crown a rent of 16/- being paid late the land of Henry Palmer.’
The Magpie was reported as being a resort of thieves in the Social and Intellectual Life of Leicester 1763-1835.
Another report concluded that the Magpie was a common public house, a very low old building, two stories, three windows below and three above with old lead casements, whitewashed. A narrow passage and yard led to the Market Place, on the hanging sign was the figure of a magpie and on the window shutters were painted chequers, “Rum Shrub & Perl Sold Her.’ It became a house for the resort of thieves, and Tanky Smith (the famous Leicester detective) captured many here.
Hardly a week went by in the 1830s – 1840s when the Magpie wasn’t in the news for the wrong reasons. Many times police were called to evict drunken customers only for the police to be assaulted themselves.
One case told of a sailor without coat or waist coat ‘lately dismissed from the treadmill’, charged with behaving riotously in the Magpie, begging and threatening to break the widows.
In 1833, the landlord, Zackery Redshaw, was declared bankrupt in a long, convoluted trial, involving many claimants. The commissionaire threatened to indict all parties for conspiracy, including the insolvency valuer.
In April 1835, the press reported a prize fight, attended by the most ‘worthless vagabonds from the Magpie, to the disgrace of the landlord. The article continued that ‘it would be a mercy to do away with such house, whilst Leicester would reap an unbound advantage’.
When the beer house was toted for demolition a petition was presented to the magistrates opposing the transfer of the Magpie licence to Mr. Thompson, adjoining the Angel Gateway. It pointed out the inconvenience and unpleasantness to the neighbourhood.
The Magpie was demolished much to the delight of many in Leicester.