An advert in the Leicester Mail in July 1868 read:
HENRY FLOWERS QUEEN’S COMMERCIAL HOTEL 43 GRANBY ST.
Burton mild & also Guinness stout on draught and in bottle, wines, etc, steak, chops etc.
Henry Flowers ran the Albion beerhouse and dining rooms further down in Gallowtree Gate. If he ran the Queen’s venture in conjunction with the Albion is unclear, but his name comes up from 1860 to 1870s as running the latter.
In August of 1868, one John Pickering tried to steal the till from the Queen’s when landlady Fanny Flowers went out the back.
This project of the Queen’s Commercial Hotel fared only until September 1868 when all the stock – including some 200 galls of Burton ale and F&F – were up for auction.
In December 1868, Henry Flowers appealed for bankruptcy to the courts in Chancery Lane London.
Henry & Fanny Flowers didn’t seem to suffer too much, as they lived in a large house in Braunstone Gate, complete with servants. Rose, their daughter of only ten weeks died here in 1872. In 1876, a court case involving one of their servants up for stealing from the Flowers was reported.
Quite a bit of mystery surrounds Henry Flowers as he seems to be involved in various cases. (JR) gave the Commercial Hotel as 43 Gallowtree Gate which was the Criterion, a similar establishment, as Gallowtree Gate is the continuation of Granby Street it is easy to understand why.