Bird Bolt Inn: from pub to temperance hotel

Elizabeth Gill's lease for the Birdbolt tenement (1681)

From the 15th century, Cambridge inns and public houses begin to figure by name in town rentals, College accounts and deeds of purchase. The Bird Bolt Inn, later known as the Bird Bolt Temperance Hotel, was orginally located at the corner of Downing and St Andrew's Streets.
 

Birdbolt Temperance Hotel (c.1910)The name Bird Bolt was apparently in use from 1630 although the name change does not appear in the College records until five years later. From 1638, College leases and plans refer to the building and its attached premises as the Bird Bolt Inn. The original building was torn down in the late 19th century to make way for the new Norwich Union Building.

 

 

 

Following the demolition of the original inn, the new landlord moved the hotel  to 41 Regent St. and re-branded it as a temperance hotel. From 1910 it was run by Mr J. W. Hall and his family as the Bird Bolt Family and Commercial Temperance Hotel.

 Barnett Beales' lease for the Birdbolt Inn (1862) Lease to B Beales for the Birdbolt (1835)

The Bird Bolt Hotel (c.late 19th century)
    Plan of the Birdbolt Inn (1792)

Plan for Beales' lease (1835)   Plan of Birdbolt for Beales' lease (1862)

 

This Special Collections Spotlight article was contributed on 2 September 2015 by the Archivist.