CONTEXT 175 : MARCH 2023 33 EAST ANGLIA COAST hundreds of years. Among some of its earliest known inns were the Red Lion, the Crown, the Ram, the Bell, the White Horse, the Ship and the Hanging Sword, which were all in operation by the Elizabethan era. Most of these buildings have been demolished, with only the Quayside Hotel (formerly the Ship) and the Stump and Candle (formerly the Bell) still in operation. The Stump and Candle is Boston’s most famous pub as the birthplace of the noted Tudor historian John Foxe, the author of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. The original inn was believed to have been demolished in about 1820, but much more likely, the building was underbuilt to create a flush new facade in keeping with this side of the marketplace, which was updated at the time. Several other pubs in Boston also show signs of underbuilding, namely the Golden Lion and the Robin Hood, which were both on the renewal of licences list in 1784 but are likely to be much older. Boston also has a number of Georgian inns, notable examples including the Britannia, the Carpenters Arms and the King’s Arms, all still in service today. The town’s coaching inns were not so lucky: the Red Lion and White Horse (substantially rebuilt during the Georgian era) were demolished for shops in the 1960s, as was the Peacock and Royal, overlooking the marketplace. Pubs built in the Victorian era were once a familiar sight along Boston streets, as many took advantage of the Beerhouse Act of 1830, enabling any ratepayer to brew and sell beer. Nearly all of these establishments in the town have ceased trading, with several houses demolished, such as the Victorian Inn, the Blue Lion, the Brewer’s Arms and the Flying Dutchman, the latter doubling as a common lodging house when the practice of sleeping on a line at one penny a night was still in use. Other examples, Lincolnshire pubs owned by the Soames Brewery of Spalding, photographed between 1948 and 1953 (more overleaf) (Photos: Lincolnshire Archives)
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