As teenage lads we would call in Pages, which seemed to us catered for the ‘older’ generation – one of few places where women would be seen alone sipping their sherry. Even then I had the feeling that this charming place was something special, their specialities seemed to be sherry and port straight from the barrel.
No beer, unique, atmospheric, reminiscent of a time gone by. We always behaved ourselves in there, somehow the place demanded respect, without asking for it.
Barry Lount
The earliest record of wine being sold from these premises is 1840, when William McAdam an umbrella maker advertised in the local journal:
Wm McAdam Agent for the sale of British Wines, Wholesale & retail.
Port, Sherry from 9d Champagne from 21/- per doz
Imported Cane, foreign cigars
The entrance to the wine shop is in the little lane adjoining Saracens Head.
McAdams Umbrellas were shown at no. 5 Market place, with the Wine shop at the rear in the Jetty, or Jitty, or as the ad describes the little lane.
Circa, 1871 McAdams were to go into liquidation and George Henry Johnson a confectioner, was to have a sweet and wine licence from the whole of the premises as his ad in 1876 shows:
G H Johnson 5 Market Place wishes to call to the attention of the public to his highly celebrated own make of GINGER 1/6 per quart COWSLIP 1/8 per quart and SPICED ELDER 1/8 per quart, also British & Foreign Wines by the measure or bottle.
Agent for Waters Quinine Wine.
Quinine was used as a cure for malaria as well as a tonic. Manufactures used any avenue to sell their goods, as the floods the yearly previous had caused havoc in the city, led Waters to claim:
‘The Floods which have recently prevailed inevitably leave much fever, ague & miasma, Waters quinine is recognised as invaluable as a preventative.’
In 1878, George Henry Johnson transferred his sweet and wine licence to Frederick Page. Within a year Frederick Page was advertising his wines from the Jetty Wine Shop:
‘HOT ElDER WINE 1and ½ penny per glass all drawn from the wood, wine cigars and refreshments. French papers daily “Le Figaro & Lepetite” from JETTY WINE SHOP and 5 Market Place.’
This was the first time that ‘Jetty Shop’ was used.
There has been much talk of mispronunciation of Jetty, some thought it was Jitty – indeed we tended to call it Jitty Wine Lodge in the 1950-60s.
Jetty is usually associated with boat landing stages, but apparently Leicestershire folk did use the name Jetty for an alleyway in Georgian & Victorian times. That may have been through dialect, nevertheless the Wine shop was always officially called ‘Jetty.’ If you meet anyone and they refer it as The ‘Jitty’ you know they are from Leicester.
Frederick Page’s involvement in 1878 started the family’s connection with the shop stretching until 1965. Page’s Wine Lodge would pass down through the family, eventually to Norman Page.
In March 1939, Norman Page had to call out the fire brigade as a fuse in the cellar had blown and started a fire. The smoke in the upstairs bar was so intense that everyone was evacuated into Market Place. The fireman donned gas masks and forced the hose through the bar to the cellar. The heat from the fire then burst a water pipe as the firemen completed their job and left customers returned to resume drinking, this time by candle light.
(Photo from Memories of Leicester)
Yates were to buy Pages Wine Lodge, circa 1965. Not much changed initially but they soon purchased next door. They left the original as Jetty Wine Lodge as can be seen in the photo below, with the addition under their name.
The old wine lodge should have been in safe hands with Yates’ being synonymous with Wine Lodges – Nottingham possible the best followed by Blackpool and Liverpool. In 2001, after protracted merger talks, Yates sold eight of their outlets to Morrells of Oxford (including Market Place), dropped their wine lodge image, and embarked on pub expansions (Yates in Belvoir Street was opened but more on a pub entertainment concept). Yates have since been through takeovers, mergers administrations, but sadly our old wine lodge disappeared to be replaced by the Cork and Bottle.
This marked the beginning of the end. A succession of refurbs and name changes followed i.e Corkers, circa 2004.
It returned to the Market Tavern circa 2007, before embarking on the name Alfie’s circa 2008, then back again to the Market Tavern mark three circa 2010.
Spotted in upstairs window of the old wine lodge circa 2015 (pretty apt really). Almost one hundred years unchanged in the same family, then nine or ten changes of names within a few years. Watch this space.
We used to make a beeline for Yates’s in the early 70’s for stag nights.We used to get them a mickey Finn as Aussie white port and other things, they were legless when we left.we were generally the only young ones in the bar.
Early 60’s when we went in, remember the Port well, like you we were the only young ones in the place, a real gem.
“Jitty” is an old Leicester word for an alleyway, and this pub was known locally as The Jitty for many years. During World War II, my grandmother was frightened of the black-out but would make her way through the darkened streets to meet her cronies for a Guinness in The Jitty. Then my grandfather retired from the police and took on the licence for The Spread Eagle, so my grandmother abandoned her years of loyalty to The Jitty.
Lovely comment Sadie, we always knew it as the ‘Jitty’ Wine Lodge an absolute ‘classic’ of Leicester. Thanks for your interest.
Out of interest we used to call little footpaths between houses “The Jetty” in Knighton in the 1960s. I’m not sure it was ever written down though, so Jitty or Jetty are the pretty much the same in south Leicester dialect.