As a market town conveniently located on major transport routes,
Loughborough historically has offered visitors and inhabitants a large
number of drinking establishments - pubs; taverns; coaching inns;
post-houses and beer or ale houses - and the town was once home to the
extensive Midland Brewery Company on Derby Road, close to the canal. As
the town grew rapidly during industrialisation, the demand for more
inns, beerhouses and off-licences grew too and in 1889 264
establishments were licensed to sell beer in Loughborough. By the 21st
century this had shrunk to about a fifth of this total and in this book
author Lynne Dyer surveys the drinking establishments in Loughborough
which were in existence immediately before the pandemic of 2020-21 and
those that have re-opened since that time, tracing their history and
fortune. The diversity of these survivors is celebrated, ranging from
historic buildings such as the Loughborough Arms in Baxter Gate,
originally a coaching inn on the Earl of Moira's land known as Rose and
Crown, which was also used as a venue for land and property auctions,
inquests, and the annual celery show, the Royal Oak on Leicester Road,
built to serve the turnpike road which also hosted auctions and inquests
and the Paget Arms in Paget Street a fine red brick building, on the
corner of Paget Street and Oxford Street, built at the centre of a
Victorian housing development for workers in Loughborough's expanding
industries, to the recently constructed such as The Project in Market
Street. In Loughborough Pubs, author Lynne Dyer takes the reader on a
fascinating journey through the town's watering holes, many of which
have retained features and traditions of previous ages. Brimming with
quirky tales and fascinating facts, this carefully crafted guide
initiates readers into the fascinating history of Loughborough's pubs.
