Falstaff Hotel

On the west side of Marlborough Street, and on the corner of Granby Street, Devonport, once stood the Falstaff Hotel. Paying homage, like so many other Falstaffs up and down the country, to Shakespeare’s larger than life character Sir John Falstaff (who appears in three of the great bard’s works) the hotel was destroyed during the war. Between the wars however it had been a lively place and at various times its licensees were fined for “allowing card playing for money”, “drinking outside licensed hours” and “permitting the premises to be the habitual resort of reputed prostitutes” – Sir John would have been in his element!

In the nineteenth century, incidentally, the Crimean war era appears also to have been a lively one for Marlborough Street and three pubs opened and closed in the street in a relatively short period – the Cider Cellars, the Gibraltar and the intriguingly named Man in the Wood.

Licensees

1920 - William Maxwell
1921 - Percy Parnell
1923 - William Pengelly
1931 - Edwin Bennetts
1933 - Percy Foster
1934 - John Slinger
1936 - Reginald Turner