Stood opposite Malt Shovel Eldon/Wharf Street.
Known as George III or often as King George III from circa 1830. William Taylor Laughton was landlord through to 1856 when he died aged eighty-four.
William, with his wife Mary were both staunch Tories. Mary was to buy the Great Mace of Leicester for £85, when the newly erected radical council sold off the trappings of the old Tory council, including the mace bearer and other positions, causing a furore in the local press. The history of the Great Mace goes back before the middle ages. It was stolen when the Royalist soldiers sacked Leicester during the siege of 1645. The mace was replaced in 1649.
The mace was to take pride of place in the George III bar, yet several attempts were made to steal the mace. Mary finally sold the mace on to Col. Richard Ellison of Lincoln, and it passed through other bequeathed hands before being retuned to the Leicester Corporation some thirty years later. It is now housed in the Town Hall Leicester. (The Mace story courtesy of Rita J Pickering and Robert Bulford).
In 1860, James Lee came in followed by George Sturgess in 1863. 1870 records James Lee again (unless one directory record is a mistake). 1875 was James Smith. His tenancy was beset with personal problems as Smith took up with Martha Leclare, much to the annoyance of Smith’s wife Emma. When Martha entered the pub, Emma Smith attacked and kicked her – both ended up in court in September 1878. The bench took note of James Smith’s adultery and the Smiths duly left the George III the following month. The licence passed to William Olphin (the Olphin family owned the Generous Briton among others).
By 1890, the licensee was Charles Tallis, and his son, William, followed circa1899. By then LBM had purchased the pub.
William Tallis was informed in October 1917 that his son, 2nd Lieutenant Sidney William Tallis of the Leicestershire Regiment had been shot and severely wounded in France, and was in the Rouen field military hospital. What eventually happened to the young soldier is not known but JR claims that in 1932 William Tallis junior took over at the pub.
The King George closed circa 1938, with the licence transferred to the Naseby.
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