17 Holywell Street dates from the sixteenth/seventeenth century. This was the King’s Head pub until 1926, and King’s Head Passage ran down the west side of the building. It is owned by Merton College.
It is a Grade II Listed Building (1087082), with the following description:
No 17 SP 5106 NE 6/211 12.1.54. II GV 2.
House No RCHM 207. A C16-C17 three-storeyed roughcast timber-framed front with two gables in which are two tall early C18 sash windows in moulded frames. There are brick stacks. The ground floor has a wide modern three-light casement window; there are two doorways, that on the East being the front door and this has a moulded wood square-headed frame with enriched stop chamfers and a rectangular fanlight above; the base of this doorway is ancient but the fanlight frame is renewed. The first floor has two C18 sash windows in moulded frames. On the West and behind the front gables is another similar gable which is probably C16-17.
Interior: RCHM p.181b. Includes a late C17 staircase, stone fireplace and doorframe.
This was the King's Head pub by 1830. and the lease was purchased by Morrell's Brewery in 1852. Local inquests and auctions were held in this pub, and in 1853 the lodge room of the Ancient Order of Britons Lodge No. 1 was here. It closed on 15 September 1926, and the building became a private house.
17 Holywell Street (the King's Head) in the censuses
1841
The 1841 census for Holywell does not give house numbers, but it is possible to deduce where people listed that year lived by examining directory entries between 1839 and 1842 and later censuses
Thomas Howlett (30), a victualler, lived here with Ann (25) and two male servants. Another servant, James Leaver (30 lived in a separate household here with Elizabeth and Ann (4).
William Talmage (60), a tailor, may also have been living here with Elizabeth (60).
1851
James King (39), the victualler of the King’s Head, lived here with his wife Sarah (42) and three lodgers.
1861
James Perry (34), the victualler of the King’s Head, lived here with his wife Ann (36) and children John (8), William (7), and Anne (2). They also had a boarder.
1871
James Perry (44), described as innkeeper, lived here at the King's Head with his wife Ann (46) and their children John (18), who a a groom, William (16), who was a porter, James (13), Ann (12), Alfred (8), Harry (6), and Fred (3).
1881
Edwin Slatter (52), the publican of the King’s Head, lived here with his wife Susan (47) and his children Adelaide (24), George (20), who was a carpenter, Edwin (12), and Alexander (9). They had a labourer boarding with them, and a gardener as their lodger.
1891
James Hayter (32), described as a shoeing smith, was living here at the King's Head with his wife Alice (31) and their children Jane (4) and Alice (1). They had one general servant and a lodger.
1901
Francis Tubb (33), a publican, lived at the King’s Head with his wife Harriett (30) and his children Florence (7) and Francis (6).
1911
Kate Webber (51), a widowed innkeeper, lived at the King’s Head with her son Frederick (25), who was a blacksmith, her daughters Lily (22) and Beatrice (16), and her niece Beatrice Wooldridge (8).
1921
Thomas Edward Richardson (49), the alehouse keeper of the King's Head, lived here with his wife Lillian (46) and their boarder.
1939 Register
The hospital officer John D. C. Curtis is listed here with his wife Gladys.
Occupants of 17 Holywell Street (former King's Head) listed in directories etc. |
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1758 |
Mr Towley |
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1772 |
Mr Talmage |
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1830–1926 |
King’s Head public houseGeorge Hands (1830) |
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1928 |
Edgar Alan Thiedé |
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1930 |
Kenneth James Franklin, D.M., M.A., Fellow & Lecturer in Physiology, Oriel College, |
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1933 |
Frank Taylor |
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1935–1938 |
Mrs Allison-Brown |
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1940–1947 |
John D. C. Curtis |
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1949–1976 |
Gerald Merton, M.C., M.A., Ph.D., F.R.A.S. |
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Today |
Private house, owned by Merton College |
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