Anchor Inn (St. Leonards)

The Anchor Inn (St. Leonards) was above East Ascent, in a twitten between numbers 5 and 6, leading off towards the Royal Victoria Mews around 1834. Brett refers to this in his Manuscript Histories and states that it was tenanted by Mr. Ballard, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Skinner, Mr. Vidow (circa 1869) and Mr. Tom Wells (circa 1880) respectively. In the early days, these premises were not licensed and purely a beerhouse. In the Brett histories linked to above, it can be seen that this was due to an agreement between James Burton and the landlord of the nearby Horse and Groom that there would be no public houses licensed between the Horse and Groom and the St. Leonards Tap. At the time of opening, most of the population could not read and papers were prohibitively expensive and many public houses operated 'news rooms' where readers would be employed to recite the news to customers. Brett was believed to have been a newsreader at this location, he alluding to this fact in the aforementioned histories. The pub was known to have been tied to the Blythe Brewery (later Ind Coope) prior to its closure and was losing trade rapidly at the start of the 20th Century, finally being closed in 1905 powers under the Act of 1904. Hastings Pub History] gives the information that the house was recognised by a ‘fouled anchor’ - an anchor with a rope wound around it - above the door and that Burton later incorporated this image into his coat of arms for St. Leonards. From the aforementioned website; "Other versions of the St. Leonards’ anchor can be seen on the Clock House, St. Leonards Gardens, above the arch of North Lodge and on an old cast iron boundary marker." The pub name lives on in the name of the twitten - Anchor Passage.

Known licensees/publicans

Date from	Date to	Name of person	Source / reference
1839 (by)	before 1845	Thomas Cooper	Cited by Russell as first licensee (1839); 1841 census shows him as innkeeper at Mews Passage.
1845 (by)	before 1848	William Skinner	Cited by Russell as licensee in 1845.
23 May 1848 (by)	10 May 1851	James Ballard	1848 birth notice “at the Anchor Inn”; 1850 electoral register; burial 10 May 1851 “of the Anchor”.
1851 (after May)	before April 1855	Mary Ballard	Widow of James Ballard; cited by Russell as licensee in 1852.
15 April 1855 (by)	4 July 1856	George William Phillimore Stevens (“George Stevens”)	Daughter’s death notice (April 1855) “he being of the Anchor Inn”; baptism Aug 1855; license transferred from him 4 July 1856.
4 July 1856	6 May 1870	Thomas Vido / Thomas Vidow	License transferred to him 4 July 1856; 1861 census; wife’s death at Anchor 1866; court cases 1869; license transferred from him 6 May 1870.
6 May 1870	19 August 1871	Jeremiah Crittenden	License transferred to him 6 May 1870; 1871 census (publican at Anchor Inn).
19 August 1871	mid‑1890s (by 1895 described as “late tenant”)	Tom Wells / Thomas Wells	License transferred to him 19 Aug 1871; Russell cites 1872–95; 1881 census; 1891 Kelly’s directory; described as retired/late tenant by 1895–96.

Images

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  1873 map giving location of Coach and Horses and Anchor Inn