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The Birkenhead Vigilance Committee (formed 1899) some book extracts
This was a kind of Temperance society against drinking and had some input in the issuing of pub licences.


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back door pibs [1600x1200].JPG (115.67 KB, 346 downloads)
Back door pubs
count of pub women [1600x1200].JPG (156.47 KB, 349 downloads)
Counting the women customers
map rotated [1600x1200].JPG (89.45 KB, 350 downloads)
map in book
Last edited by derekdwc; 2nd Jan 2012 1:34pm.
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Which book is that Derek?

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It's in the Birkenhead Archives just ask for The Birkenhead Vigilance Committee book

Last edited by derekdwc; 5th Jan 2012 11:24pm.
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I'll make a note. Cheers smile

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The beginning of beer houses and licences
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_house#Beer_Houses_and_the_1830_Beer_Act


Beer Houses and the 1830 Beer Act
Main article: Beerhouse Act

Traditional English ale was made solely from fermented malt. The practice of adding hops to produce beer was introduced from the Netherlands in the early 15th century. Alehouses would each brew their own distinctive ale, but independent breweries began to appear in the late 17th century. By the end of the century almost all beer was brewed by commercial breweries.

The 18th century saw a huge growth in the number of drinking establishments, primarily due to the introduction of gin. Gin was brought to England by the Dutch after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and started to become very popular after the government created a market for grain that was unfit to be used in brewing by allowing unlicensed gin production, whilst imposing a heavy duty on all imported spirits. As thousands of gin-shops sprang up all over England, brewers fought back by increasing the number of alehouses. By 1740 the production of gin had increased to six times that of beer and because of its cheapness it became popular with the poor, leading to the so-called Gin Craze. Over half of the 15,000 drinking establishments in London were gin-shops.

The drunkenness and lawlessness created by gin was seen to lead to ruination and degradation of the working classes. The distinction was illustrated by William Hogarth in his engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane.[11] The Gin Act (1736) imposed high taxes on retailers but led to riots in the streets. The prohibitive duty was gradually reduced and finally abolished in 1742. The 1751 Gin Act however was more successful. It forced distillers to sell only to licensed retailers and brought gin-shops under the jurisdiction of local magistrates.

By the early 19th century and encouraged by a lowering of duties on gin, the gin houses or "Gin Palaces" had spread from London to most major cities and towns in Britain, with most of the new establishments illegal and unlicensed. These bawdy, loud and unruly drinking dens so often described by Charles Dickens in his Sketches by Boz (published 1835–6) increasingly came to be held as unbridled cesspits of immorality or crime and the source of much ill-health and alcoholism among the working classes.[12]

Under a banner of "reducing public drunkenness" the Beer Act of 1830 introduced a new lower tier of premises permitted to sell alcohol, the Beer Houses. At the time beer was viewed as harmless, nutritious and even healthy. Young children were often given what was described as small beer, which was brewed to have a low alcohol content, to drink, as the local water was often unsafe. Even the evangelical church and temperance movements of the day viewed the drinking of beer very much as a secondary evil and a normal accompaniment to a meal. The freely available beer was thus intended to wean the drinkers off the evils of gin, or so the thinking went.[13]

Under the 1830 Act any householder who paid rates could apply, with a one-off payment of two guineas (equal to £158.64 today), to sell beer or cider in his home (usually the front parlour) and even brew his own on his premises. The permission did not extend to the sale of spirits and fortified wines and any beer house discovered selling those items was closed down and the owner heavily fined. Beer houses were not permitted to open on Sundays. The beer was usually served in jugs or dispensed directly from tapped wooden barrels lying on a table in the corner of the room. Often profits were so high the owners were able to buy the house next door to live in, turning every room in their former home into bars and lounges for customers.

In the first year, four hundred beer houses opened and within eight years there were 46,000[14] opened across the country, far outnumbering the combined total of long-established taverns, public houses, inns and hotels. Because it was so easy to obtain permission and the profits could be huge compared to the low cost of gaining permission, the number of beer houses was continuing to rise and in some towns nearly every other house in a street could be a beer house. Finally in 1869 the growth had to be checked by magisterial control and new licensing laws were introduced. Only then was the ease by which permission could be obtained reduced and the licensing laws which operate today formulated.

Although the new licensing laws prevented any new beer houses from being created, those already in existence were allowed to continue and many did not fully die out until nearly the end of the 19th century. A very small number remained into the 21st century.[15] A vast majority of the beer houses applied for the new licences and became full public houses. These usually small establishments can still be identified in many towns, seemingly oddly located in the middle of otherwise terraced housing part way up a street, unlike purpose-built pubs that are usually found on corners or road junctions. Many of today's respected real ale micro-brewers in the UK started as home based Beer House brewers under the 1830 Act.

The beer houses also tended to avoid the traditional public house names like The Crown, The Red Lion, The Royal Oak etc. and, if they did not simply name their place Smith's Beer House, they would apply topical pub names in an effort to reflect the mood of the times.
[edit] Licensing laws
Main article: Licensing laws of the United Kingdom
The interior of a typical English pub

From the middle of the 19th century restrictions were placed on the opening hours of licensed premises in the UK. However licensing was gradually liberalised after the 1960s, until contested licensing applications became very rare, and the remaining administrative function was transferred to Local Authorities in 2005.

The Wine and Beerhouse Act 1869 reintroduced the stricter controls of the previous century. The sale of beers, wines or spirits required a licence for the premises from the local magistrates. Further provisions regulated gaming, drunkenness, prostitution and undesirable conduct on licensed premises, enforceable by prosecution or more effectively by the landlord under threat of forfeiting his licence. Licences were only granted, transferred or renewed at special Licensing Sessions courts, and were limited to respectable individuals. Often these were ex-servicemen or ex-policemen; retiring to run a pub was popular amongst military officers at the end of their service. Licence conditions varied widely, according to local practice. They would specify permitted hours, which might require Sunday closing, or conversely permit all-night opening near a market. Typically they might require opening throughout the permitted hours, and the provision of food or lavatories. Once obtained, licences were jealously protected by the licensees (always persons expected to be generally present, not a remote owner or company), and even "Occasional Licences" to serve drinks at temporary premises such as fêtes would usually be granted only to existing licensees. Objections might be made by the police, rival landlords or anyone else on the grounds of infractions such as serving drunks, disorderly or dirty premises, or ignoring permitted hours.

Detailed records were kept on licensing, giving the Public House, its address, owner, licensee and misdemeanours of the licensees for periods often going back for hundreds of years. Many of these records survive and can be viewed, for example, at the London Metropolitan Archives centre.

These culminated in the Defence of the Realm Act[16] of August 1914, which, along with the introduction of rationing and the censorship of the press for wartime purposes, also restricted the opening hours of public houses to 12 noon–2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m. Opening for the full licensed hours was compulsory, and closing time was equally firmly enforced by the police; a landlord might lose his licence for infractions. There was a special case established under the State Management Scheme[17] where the brewery and licensed premises were bought and run by the state until 1973, most notably in the Carlisle District. During the 20th century elsewhere, both the licensing laws and enforcement were progressively relaxed, and there were differences between parishes; in the 1960s, at closing time in Kensington at 10:30 p.m., drinkers would rush over the parish boundary to be in good time for "Last Orders" in Knightsbridge before 11 p.m., a practice observed in many pubs adjoining licensing area boundaries. Some Scottish and Welsh parishes remained officially "dry" on Sundays (although often this merely required knocking at the back door of the pub). These restricted opening hours led to the tradition of lock-ins.

However, closing times were increasingly disregarded in the country pubs. In England and Wales by 2000 pubs could legally open from 11 a.m. (12 noon on Sundays) through to 11 p.m. (10:30 p.m. on Sundays). That year was also the first to allow continuous opening for 36 hours from 11 a.m. on New Year's Eve to 11 p.m. on New Year's Day. In addition, many cities had by-laws to allow some pubs to extend opening hours to midnight or 1 a.m., whilst nightclubs had long been granted late licences to serve alcohol into the morning. Pubs in the immediate vicinity of London's Smithfield market, Billingsgate fish market and Covent Garden fruit and flower market were permitted to stay open 24 hours a day since Victorian era times to provide a service to the shift working employees of the markets.

Scotland's and Northern Ireland's licensing laws have long been more flexible, allowing local authorities to set pub opening and closing times. In Scotland, this stemmed out of a late repeal of the wartime licensing laws, which stayed in force until 1976.

The Licensing Act 2003,[18] which came into force on 24 November 2005, aimed to consolidate the many laws into a single act. This allowed pubs in England and Wales to apply to the local authority for the opening hours of their choice. Supporters at the time argued that it would end the concentration of violence around half past 11, when people had to leave the pub, making policing easier. In practice, alcohol-related hospital admissions rose following the change in the law, with alcohol involved in 207,800 admissions in 2006/7.[19] Critics claimed that these laws would lead to "24-hour drinking". By the time the law came into effect, 60,326 establishments had applied for longer hours and 1,121 had applied for a licence to sell alcohol 24 hours a day. However, nine months after the act, many pubs had not changed their hours, although there was a tendency for some to be open longer at the weekend but rarely beyond 1:00 a.m.

Last edited by derekdwc; 6th Jan 2012 10:04am.
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Drink Map of Birkenhead 1899 published by The Birkenhead Vigilance Committee.
This can be obtained from Chester Archives on cd for about £5.
Hopefully in the coming weeks I can number the pubs on the map and do a list of their names.
I may need help with those from round the Priory way/Grange Street down to Waterloo place
I think the one by Woodside Station is the Refreshment Rooms in the station

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Drink Map of Birkenhead 1899 title.jpg (172.94 KB, 208 downloads)
Drink Map of Birkenhead 1899 full map.jpg (180.42 KB, 209 downloads)
Last edited by derekdwc; 10th Jan 2012 10:47am.
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Pub and Hotel names found on the 1875 Town Plan of Birkenhead, for the highlighted area, above.

On the west side of New Chester Road, going North -
Tranmere Castle Hotel, junction with Green Lane.
Shakespear Hotel, south side of junction with Waterloo Place.
Prince Alfred Hotel, north side junction with Waterloo Place.
Golden Lion ph. Chester St
Dutchess of Edinburgh ph. Chester St
Manor Arms ph, Chester St, opposite the end of Abbey St.
Birkenhead Arms Hotel, corner of Grange St / Chester St

Feathers Hotel on corner of Ivy St Lower / Chester St
Castle Hotel
County Arms House, Abbey St / Knox St.
Denbighshire Inn, St. Marys Gate / White St

Cunard Hotel, Sandford St / Canning St
Egerton Hotel, Canning St / George St (south west corner)
Priory Hotel, Leicester St / Old Priory
Old Abbey Inn, adjacent corner of above.
Clarendon Hotel, Chester St / Pilgrim St
Ranelagh Hotel, Chester St / Market St
Market Hotel, Market St / Cross St
The Glass Barrel, Market St / Albion St
Craven Rooms, Chester St
Hamlet Inn, Chester St
Queens Arms Hotel, Chester St / Bridge St
Woodside Hotel
Royal Hotel, Church St.
nb Tranmere ferry and Mokks Ferry both had refreshment rooms.

George and Dragon, Argyle St / Grange Rd
Argyle Hotel, next to Argyle Theatre
Conway Arms Hotel, end of Conway St / Argyle St
Stork Hotel.

Farmers Arms, Waterloo Pl / Egerton St / Old Chester Rd or Tunnel Rd
Durham Ox Inn, Elizabeth Pl / Jackson St
Lion Brewery (disused) west side of Thomas St
Borough Hotel, Thomas St / Borough Rd
Wellington Hotel, Haymarket
Chester Arms, Market Place
Post Office Hotel, Argyle St
Free Library
Websters Commercial Inn, Grange St / Old Chester Rd or Tunnel Rd
Borough Inn, Grange St / Egerton St
The Market Inn, Market St
Barnetts Vaults, Market St
Crown Vaults, Market St
Caledonian Vaults, Market St.

To view the Town Plan I have used, go to http://www.old-maps.co.uk
For the co-ordinates, a good starting point is 332500 & 388400. As the maps load (slowly) select 1876 Town Plans, Birkenhead 1:500. To get the next map north, a good increment is a value of 100, so the next map north is 332500 & 388400.
To go east, try starting with 332400, or for west 332600.
Its all based on the OS grid, but whereas a sheet map would often be called by its reference on the south west corner, eg SJ3188, the OS reference of the corner would be (to 6 digits) SJ 310000 880000. On OS maps online, the co-ordinates are at the centre of the image, and the SJ 'square' that we are in begins with the digits 8 & 8 (usually shown small in the map corner, and not normally quoted when using SJ beforehand).
I think the map is a great reference, and you can buy it on line for £16. You can't right click to save the image, but there are ways... Just remember it will take over 100 rather slow downloads to build up the full map...

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Originally Posted by Norton
Pub and Hotel names found on the 1875 Town Plan of Birkenhead, for the highlighted area, above.

On the west side of New Chester Road, going North -
Tranmere Castle Hotel, junction with Green Lane.
Shakespear Hotel, south side of junction with Waterloo Place.
Prince Alfred Hotel, north side junction with Waterloo Place.
Golden Lion ph. Chester St
Dutchess of Edinburgh ph. Chester St
Manor Arms ph, Chester St, opposite the end of Abbey St.
Birkenhead Arms Hotel, corner of Grange St / Chester St

Feathers Hotel on corner of Ivy St Lower / Chester St
Castle Hotel
County Arms House, Abbey St / Knox St.
Denbighshire Inn, St. Marys Gate / White St

Cunard Hotel, Sandford St / Canning St
Egerton Hotel, Canning St / George St (south west corner)
Priory Hotel, Leicester St / Old Priory
Old Abbey Inn, adjacent corner of above.
Clarendon Hotel, Chester St / Pilgrim St
Ranelagh Hotel, Chester St / Market St
Market Hotel, Market St / Cross St
The Glass Barrel, Market St / Albion St
Craven Rooms, Chester St
Hamlet Inn, Chester St
Queens Arms Hotel, Chester St / Bridge St
Woodside Hotel
Royal Hotel, Church St.
nb Tranmere ferry and Mokks Ferry both had refreshment rooms.

George and Dragon, Argyle St / Grange Rd
Argyle Hotel, next to Argyle Theatre
Conway Arms Hotel, end of Conway St / Argyle St
Stork Hotel.

Farmers Arms, Waterloo Pl / Egerton St / Old Chester Rd or Tunnel Rd
Durham Ox Inn, Elizabeth Pl / Jackson St
Lion Brewery (disused) west side of Thomas St
Borough Hotel, Thomas St / Borough Rd
Wellington Hotel, Haymarket
Chester Arms, Market Place
Post Office Hotel, Argyle St
Free Library
Websters Commercial Inn, Grange St / Old Chester Rd or Tunnel Rd
Borough Inn, Grange St / Egerton St
The Market Inn, Market St
Barnetts Vaults, Market St
Crown Vaults, Market St
Caledonian Vaults, Market St.

To view the Town Plan I have used, go to http://www.old-maps.co.uk
For the co-ordinates, a good starting point is 332500 & 388400. As the maps load (slowly) select 1876 Town Plans, Birkenhead 1:500. To get the next map north, a good increment is a value of 100, so the next map north is 332500 & 388400.
To go east, try starting with 332400, or for west 332600.
Its all based on the OS grid, but whereas a sheet map would often be called by its reference on the south west corner, eg SJ3188, the OS reference of the corner would be (to 6 digits) SJ 310000 880000. On OS maps online, the co-ordinates are at the centre of the image, and the SJ 'square' that we are in begins with the digits 3 & 3 (usually shown small in the map corner, and not normally quoted when using SJ beforehand).
I think the map is a great reference, and you can buy it on line for £16. You can't right click to save the image, but there are ways... Just remember it will take over 100 rather slow downloads to build up the full map...



Last edited by Norton; 11th Jan 2012 4:14pm. Reason: digits 8&8 ammended to 3 & 3
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On the drink map Rodney street and Helena street there is a spot
which could be a beer house or a pub.
Does anyone know anything about it?
Can someone check if there's a name for it in 1901 census please

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I've checked the cencus from 1881 to 1911, and the premises at No.59 were occupied by the Owen family during this time. Mr Owen is described as a 'Grocer Shop Keeper' or a 'Provision Dealer'. During that time his wife and children assisted him in the trade. It seems reasonable to assume that this was a corner shop with the family living above the buisness. Most of the neighbours seem to have had some sort of employment in shipbuilding. I've also checked the other corners of Rodney St, and they would appear to be just housing. Unfortunately, the cencus does not normally indicate the use of the premises, only the occupation of the occupants.
From the photo (above) the house has obviously had an extensive makeover, with the external brickwork being replaced fairly recently. It looks like the front door has shifted to the side of the house, so now it is the only front door in Helena St. Its original position was almost certainly on the corner, judging by the coping stone, thus making this a true corner shop in times past. The old OS maps also show it without a front garden wall, thus giving room to put their wares on display.
In the above article on Beer Houses, it can be seen that the possibility exsisted for any premises to sell or even brew and sell beer for the payment of a fee and not need to appear on a cencus or OS map.


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