No.82 High Street

Shop History

Notes

• Changing its name many times, shown below is the history of the iconic and sadly missed 'Carlton Hotel'.
  
  
• Boots the Chemist was originally in No. 128 High Street and moved to No.82 High Street in 1978 as an extension of the Rookery Shopping Centre scheme.
  
  

• The demise of the Carlton Hotel 1977

Photos by kind permission of the Newmarket Journal and the Newmarket Memories Facebook page.




Looking east from the roof of the Carlton Hotel c.1966 Many thanks to Cyril Coombes for this photo

Looking west from the roof of the Carlton Hotel c.1966 Many thanks to Cyril Coombes for this photo

• Victoria Hotel, Cinema & the Craven Club

• Victoria Cinema
  1 screen 550 seats
  The Victoria Cinema was located in the hotel ballroom.
  It was in use as a ballroom in 1924 when Fred Astaire appeared here.
  The Victoria Cinema played pictures and ocassional variety shows on its 15 feet deep stage.
  There were two dressing rooms.
  
  
• Newmarket Local History Society - The Rise and Fall of the Cinema in Newmarket:-
  http://www.newmarketlhs.org.uk/lhs6A.htm
  
  
• Slice n TIme website
  http://www.slicentime.co.uk/carlton.php
  
  
• 1936 Newmarket Directory:-
  Victoria Mansions 1
  Victoria Mansions 2  - Willatts, Miss
  Victoria Mansions 3  -
  Victoria Mansions 4  - Fenn, Harold W.
  Victoria Mansions 42 - Sayers, Bernard A. (office) 
  Victoria Mansions 6  - Coates, Cecil H.A. 
  Victoria Mansions 7  - Jones, Miss A (SRN chartered masseuse) Nkt. 573
  Victoria Mansions 8  - Clements, Robert
  Victoria Mansions    - Wells, J.C. - Tailors
  Victoria Mansions    - Victoria Bar - Pub
  Victoria Mansions    - Victoria Ball Room
  Victoria Mansions    - Craven Club Nkt. 559
  Victoria Mansions    - Victoria Billiards Saloon
  
  Cecil Coates was the licensee all through World War II.
  
  
• The Craven Club moved to Primrose House No.38-40 High Street sometime after this directory listing.
  
  
• 1926 Newmarket Directory
  Victoria Hotel
  Victoria Cinema
  Victoria Mansions
      1 Lynham, B.
      2 Brindley
      3 Goode, Captain R.
      4 Tanner, Captain E.
      5 Mellow, Mrs. M.
  
  
• 1916 Kelly's Directory
  Victoria Cinema Picture House, High Street, Barrington Lynham, proprietor
  Victoria Bar Public House, High Street, Barrington Lynham, proprietor
  Barrington Lynham was a jockey, he married in 1905 in Newhaven, Sussex and moved to Newmarket in about 1909.
  
  

• The Counties Club

• SHARPS, FLATS, GAMBLERS AND RACEHORSES BY A. DICK LUCKMAN 1914 p.240-247 CHAPTER XXXVIII  TRUE FACTS ABOUT THE COUNTIES CLUB - Cost of Victoria Hotel - Cecil Drew's Purchase - His Scheme for a Club - My Co-operation invited - Putting the House in Order - Death of King Edward - Lord Lonsdale's Attitude - Should Jockeys be admitted - Starting a club - The Terrible Solitude - That Melancholy Fountain - Bills to be paid - Drew's Tragic End - Lynham's Bargain COST OF VICTORIA HOTEL One day in Essex Street I had a caller who asked me whether I would be willing to interest myself, on certain terms, in the Victoria Hotel, about which there was a suggestion of turning into a club. The "certain terms" were stated, for I never believe in tackling a business proposition unless there is a certain amount of ready money in evidence. I should like to explain fully to those who became members, and to many who have discussed the question of the club and the money which was spent on altering the building, so that they should have the exact story. CECIL DREW'S PURCHASE It appears that a year or two before the matter was brought to me that Cecil Drew, a well-known member of the Stock Exchange, now dead, who was largely interested in mining stock, had been down to Newmarket for a coursing meeting, and having won a little bit was on good terms with himself that evening when the proposition was put to him whether he wouldn't like to buy the Victoria Hotel. I believe the price mentioned was twenty thousand pounds. The place had originally cost - land and building - eighty-five thousand pounds, and a certain amount more, about twenty thousand pounds, was spent with Maple's, so that altogether this was a very expensive white elephant. It was built on the site of an old inn called the Greyhound, where William Jarvis, the trainer, was born. However, I will not go into the history of this, but tell the tale so far as it concerns me. HIS SCHEME FOR A CLUB - MY CO-OPERATION INVITED Drew bought the place, paying a deposit next day. He soon began to regret his bargain and, I believe, tried to sell it, but I was unacquainted with him at that period. From the time I first heard of the scheme until an appointment was made for Drew to come to my office several weeks elapsed. I found him a cheery good fellow, and he told me that he wanted someone to push the scheme along, draft all the rules and notices, and generally take charge of the whole thing. I told him that I would do it, but that "ready" on the nail and certain terms with regard to members would be part of the contract. He assented, and drew me a cheque, and ahead we went. Afterwards I met Mr Miller, a solicitor, who had bought the place and sold it to Drew. A company was registered, a secretary appointed, and the next thing was how to proceed. I went down to Newmarket every week-end, and the first time spent two whole days going over the entire building. It had been my hotel for a good many years during race weeks, and the drawbacks to it I was well acquainted with. To begin with there was the throbbing of an electric light engine, which by the way was always going wrong. There were plenty of rooms: a theatre - used as a ball-room sometimes - a winter-garden, a splendid smoking-room, two or three private sitting-rooms, and a fine dining-room with balcony. There was only one thing to do: have the house  ] cleaned from top to bottom, painted and repapered; and another essential was to get the electric light supply from the town. At one or two meetings of directors all my proposals were agreed to. An application was made to the Licensing Bench to keep the bar licence, as distinct altogether from the club, as there was a nice little bit of profit out of this bar, and, as I pointed out, if the club did not succeed then it might have to be sold and remade into an hotel. However, that came off all right. PUTTING THE HOUSE IN ORDER - DEATH OF KING EDWARD The repairs were begun, and a certain amount of new furniture purchased to furbish up some of the best rooms, and especially to make the winter garden attractive. It all went on steadily. At the Craven Meeting it had not been converted into the club, but then came the change. Everything was progressing, and the place beginning to look beautiful, when the death of King Edward came; it was then good-bye to the Second Spring Meeting and a terrible set-back.  LORD LONSDALE'S ATTITUDE - SHOULD JOCKEYS BE ADMITTED I must explain that, over a year before I heard anything about the place. Lord Charles Ker had been round to many well-known men, and had got their sanction to go on a sort of honorary committee, and these names were handed to me with pride, as signifying that those were the people I had to put at the top of the bill to show the public what sort of club we were going to have. But there was soon to be disillusionment about these names. Lord Lonsdale came to me on the course and said that he must ask for his name to be removed. He did not deny, of course, that he had told Lord Charles that he would "do all he could," but that had been such a long time before. At all events, he had thought better of it, and did not wish to associate himself with the club at all. At the same time he said he very much doubted whether there was any room for such a place. The jockeys and trainers and others had the Subscription Rooms, and there was accommodation in the Jockey Club, etc., for others. I pointed out to Lord Lonsdale that we had enough trouble already with the death of the King, and that if he and others insisted on their names coming off it would do us serious injury. What his private reasons were need not be gone into. However, he gave his sanction to let his name remain for another month. STARTING A CLUB There were some very elegant enamelled club badges - life members and ordinary. Then came the difficulty as to what social lines the club was to be run on. Several of the jockeys had put the question to me, as it was natural they should want to know how they stood with regard to the Turkish baths, a necessity for them. I gave my views that, with regard to men high in the social scale, they all were " waiting " to see what each other did ; one or two told me frankly that they would look on for a year or two, and see what was going to be done with the place. From the very start I had my own idea that the only way to attract membership was to make it thoroughly cosmopolitan. For instance, there were several well-known layers of odds, such as Ted Hopkins, who always had a suite of rooms reserved for him, so it was agreed that all reputable persons should be eligible; and then the ten guineas began to roll in and there were several foreign members at five guineas - men who came over from France occasionally to Newmarket. The best part of the jockeys joined, and I must say that they were the most grateful for what was supplied to them. THE TERRIBLE SOLITUDE - THAT MELANCHOLY FOUNTAIN I engaged a ladies' orchestra of three, but, by heavens! how I wish I hadn't, for at odd times between meetings when no member save myself, and perhaps one other, was in the club the place became as dead as a morgue. Still that piano, violin and 'cello would drone away at waltzes and selections, while I sat in a small office on the balcony overlooking the winter gardens, hearing the drip, drip, drip of the melancholy fountain, heard the last twitter of the wheezy consumptive in the aviary due to die that night, and saw a thrifty club steward come out and turn off the lights in the winter garden. There was one waiter, an excellent chap, whom I had kept on; he very much resembled, in fact was the dead spit of Alfred Lester. So, dear friends, can you picture some of the moments in that damn club? A little life was put into it on one or two occasions by having a dance, but this was misunderstood by Newmarket, who didn't want any innovation, and who were too mean to help the show along. I had the ******s down - that trio so well known in the West End of London - for the July meetings; a few would come and hear them. In the meantime, not having a garden, it was decided to take Willoughby House, a beautiful place with a lovely old garden. Tennis and badminton were in- stalled, and became real popular. I will say for certain members of the Ring that they applauded to the echo everything done to amuse them. The big drawing-room, furnished I think very elegantly, was used a fair amount, especially on wet days. But then came periods when a lonely caretaker in livery would stand at the open door trying to welcome in members who never came. "What time will I shut the club tonight, sir?" he would ask. "Any time you darned please," I would reply, and go over to the club proper to hear the cursed drip-drip of that everlasting leaking fountain. BILLS TO BE PAID -  In the late summer I had to think of what was going to be done in view of the autumn. Drew was a sick man, but I had to tell him that the bills were coming in. Another hundred was wanted for the electric light company, in addition to what had been paid them. Then the butcher wanted fifty pounds, and various other suppliers cheques, especially the builder who had done all the decorations; everyone seemed to be wanting a bit. I had arranged an over-draft a little while before of five hundred pounds at a local bank by Drew's wish. I went to his club in the City and begged him for a few hundred pounds to keep the show going. He was obdurate, telling me that he couldn't spare it, and why didn't I try and sell it. I did try, and very hard. There was an idea in the back of my mind that a Stores would go well at Newmarket, and I spoke to Mr W. B. Purefroy about the scheme. The idea was that it might interest Mr Hippesley Cox, who was and had been in the manager-directorship of Romano's and the Inns of Court Hotel; but nothing came of that, although I had heard that Mr Cox had been possessed all his life of the ambition to control big stores. There is still a chance at Newmarket for some firm to follow up this idea. Boots' have a place there, also Salmon & Gluckstein, but there is a lot of money in the district to be disbursed. Still, Newmarket shops supply pretty well all which is required, and the food especially is excellent. DREW'S TRAGIC END I tried to get a certain number of debentures placed, and all this was told to Drew, who a month or so before he died sent me a very charming letter thanking me for all that I had done. I am quite sure that, had another thousand pounds been forthcoming, we could have gone on for the October meetings, and those down for the December sales would have kept the game alive. But it was hopeless without any money, and I wrote and resigned my manager-directorship, while holding a certain number of ordinary shares. The matter was left in other hands, and I was so full up with the whole show that I took a continental trip, not feeling too fit after all the worry. Then came the time when the club was closed down, and the melancholy thing was that the place was shut up just as everyone wanted it. When abroad, I heard of the death of poor Cecil Drew, who died very tragically. It was a terrible shock, for I had been on very intimate terms with him. We only fell out once, and after that little difference was adjusted we were just as good friends as before. Drew loved an open-air life, but would sit up late with the best of them, yet nevertheless was up very early and out on the Heath whenever he visited Newmarket. He had a nice house in the country and loved everything in the way of nature. A genial companion, he made very few enemies, but was simply tired of pouring money away on his Newmarket investments long before I had anything to do with the show. I had furnished a special suite for him at Willoughby House, which, however, he had never taken possession of. There seemed a sort of fatality about that place, but the expense concerning it was not very great. I am afraid that in connection with the Counties Club there were not very many incidents connected with turf history. When not at Newmarket I live at the Waldorf Hotel, and Cecil Drew, a very early bird, would come up to my room and have a chat about things in general. Mr first steward - with his wife - was engaged from the staff of his hotel, and I had as much sympathy on occasions for him as for myself in those terrible moments when we had to wander round the big building with an absolute lack of patronage. The day after the King died I went down to Newmarket; it was the Saturday when the Jubilee had been postponed. The terrible tragedy of King Edward's death seemed to be more marked at Newmarket than anywhere, and it will be remembered that all the racing was abandoned for a period. LYNHAM'S BARGAIN  To those who have heard the topic of the Counties Club mentioned, I would repeat that the club was not my idea: I was brought into the scheme as no one else seemed capable of carrying it out in any way. The club certainly became a success of esteem, but there were so many factors against it: the death of the King, lack of capital and want of good-fellowship on the part of many local people to support what was really resented. Poor Drew always regretted his bargain, and the bad spec, was always on his mind. He left over fifty thousand pounds, so it wasn't a question of not being able to find any more capital - he wouldn't. Barrington Lynham is now making a big living out of it: he paid under four thousand pounds for a place originally costing six figures of pounds!

  
  

Saturday 14 March 1903, Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser SALES BY AUCTION. HOTEL VICTORIA, NEWMARKET. To be Sold for the Purpose of Winding Up a Company. Upset price for the Freehold, with possession, £15,000. WETHERALL & GREEN will SELL BY AUCTION, at the Mart, E.C., on Monday, April 6th, at two o'clock (unless previously disposed of), one lot, going concern, with possession : THE Important and Valuable Fully-Licensed FREEHOLD PROPERTY, well situated in Newmarket High-street, and known as The VICTORIA HOTEL. The buildings are modern construction, well planned and fitted, furnished, and equipped in a handsome and up-to-date manner. There is also an hotel tap entered from Drapery-row. The purchaser has the option of buying the furniture and equipment valuation. The stock-in-trade is be purchased. Arrangements could be made for portion of the purchase money to remain on mortgage. Particulars may be obtained from Messrs. PONTIFEX, HEWITT & PITT, solicitors, 16. St. Andrew's-street, Holborn ; and WEATHERALL A GREEN, surveyors and auctioneers, 22, Chancery-lane, W.C.



• 1901 census - Hotel Victoria - Frank Phillips, Hotel Manager
  By the 1911 census Frank Phillips had moved on to become the proprietor of the Bell Hotel, Derby.
  
  

• When the 'Carlton' was built

• It's reported elsewhere that it's thought that the 'Carlton' building was built in the 1860's, but if you refer to the 1886 map of Newmarket (shown on the homepage of this web site), although there's a large building at this location it's plan is much more fragmented.
  The map shows a courtyard running through the centre of the site and this is confirmed in the 1880 photo shown below. The later, much grander building is clearly shown on a 1902 Newmarket map and is then listed, as expected, as the Hotel Victoria.
  This would suggest that the 'Carlton' building was built sometime between 1886 and 1902.
  The building was constructed around a steel frame with brickwork and concrete infilling, reputed to have been one of the earliest examples of that type of construction. Historically the first UK building to make extensive use of steel was probably the 'National Liberal Club' in London, built in 1879 - so this somewhat confirms the construction of the 'Carlton' building as being later than this.
  The detail that fully clarifies the construction date of the 'Carlton' is the Newmarket Urban District Council Record shown below:-
  23 Oct 1896, for Reilly & Co - hence it was clearly built and named to coincide with the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria (1897).
  
  

• Boxing at the Greyhound Hotel

• The Greyhound Hotel was frequently used as a boxing venue ... up until at least the end of 1895.
  
  Boxing Venue History:
      Charlie Roberts v Charlie Mansford - 1890-07-16 - Greyhound Hotel, Newmarket
      Bill Corbett v Jack Fitzgibbon - 1894-03-19 - Greyhound Hotel, Newmarket
      Ned Ryan v Dido Plumb - 1894-04-22 - Greyhound Hotel, Newmarket
      Dido Plumb v Arthur Morris - 1894-10-23 - Greyhound Hotel, Newmarket
      Joe Anderson v Jack Fitzgibbons - 1895-10-23 - Greyhound Hotel, Newmarket
  
  

• Jarvis Hotel

• Trainer William Arthur Jarvis (b. 1853 Newmarket)
  In the 1861 census William Arthur was living with his father (another William), who was Inkeeper of the Railway Inn in Railway Street (later to become the Carpenters' Arms, 82 All Saints Road).
  Williams Arthur's grandfather (another William ... getting confusing this) was Inkeeper of the Greyhound in 1861 and a farmer (of 3 men) ... by 1871 both Willam Arthur and his father had moved to the Greyhound, with 18-year-old William Arthur now listed as a 'trainer of horses'.
  In the 1879 Kelly's Directory his father was still in the Greyhound and William junior was now the trainer in Waterwitch House Stables, Exeter Road.
  His father died in 1880 and his widowed mother Louisa is shown as the Innkeeper at the Greyhound in the 1881 census.
  In the 1841 census many of the Jarvis family were originally Coopers in Market Lane.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Jarvis
  
  
• 1844 - William Jarvis - White's Directory
  
  
• 1873 - William Jarvis - Harrod's Directory
  
  
• UK, City and County Directories, 1766 - 1946
  Name: William Jarvis
  Street Address: Greyhound, & inland revenue office High St
  Publication Title: 1879 Kelly's Directory
  County: Cambridgeshire
  Country: England
  Publication Year: 1879
  
  

  The Jarvis Hotel 1883

• As the result of some details declared in an infamous court case it's known that in 1888 the Jockey Charlie Wood owned No.82 High Street, the Greyhound Hotel, and at the same time he also owned Lowther House (No.146-148 High Street) and.77 High Street - the Black Horse Hotel
  
  

  • King Charles II & the Greyhound Inn

  Extract from ‘All the King's Horses’ - A Celebration of Royal Horses from 1066 to the present day - Amanda Murray Publication Date: April 1, 2006 There was change all round in that same year, Sir Christopher Wren, on visiting Newmarket, described the old palace there as a ‘vacant yard’. But it was a while before anything constructive was done, possibly because Wren and other top architects were devoting their time and energy to building projects in London in the wake of the great fire of 1666. The following year, Charles bought an old house off Lord Thomond that overlooked Newmarket High Street for £2,000 (£231,236 today), and he also bought the Greyhound Inn next door for £170.10s (£19,713 today) from a family named Piches. He then employed William Samuel, ‘a gentleman architect’, to construct a residence in which he could live and entertain. For now, his base continued to be Audley End, and in 1669 - despite the fact that construction work had begun in Newmarket - he offered to buy the house for £50,000, although the cost was never paid in full.

  
  

  • As detailed above King Charles II bought the original Greyhound Inn in 1667 - the purpose of his purchases in Newmarket was to construct his new palace in the space these buildings occupied, hence the location of this Inn was on the other side of the High Street at that time - annotated plans of the palace by Thomas Fort, Clerk of Works (1719-1745), show that this was between present day No.s 53 to 61 (HSBC Bank, Yorkshire Building Society and  Premier Travel Agents).
    
    
  • Further details about the original location of the palace on the High Street in Newmarket can be found on this page - 'Charles II's Palace'.
    
    

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• Building Changes

• Planning Application - F/92/522
  Boots 82 High Street Newmarket Suffolk
  Application Registered 20-10-1992
  Alterations to existing shopfront.
  
  

• Planning Application - F/76/550
  82 High Street Newmarket Suffolk
  Application Registered 17-09-1976
  Shop on ground floor with storage and admin. rooms on 1st floor, access from service yard.
  
  
• Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds Branch
  Sale particulars, postcards and printed euphemera
• Hotel Victoria, High Street, Newmarket.; (illus) HD 1325/19a Mar. 1900
• Hotel Victoria, High Street, Newmarket (with option to purchase furniture and equipment) HD 1325/31 Apr. 1903
• Furniture and effects from the Counties Club (formerly Victoria Hotel), Newmarket HD 1325/46 Mar. 1911
• Programme of 'Quo Vadis?' shown at the Victoria Cinema, Newmarket HD 1325/91 Undated [early 20th cent.]
  
  
• Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds Branch
  Newmarket Urban District Council Records
• Temporary hoarding, new Greyhound Hotel, High St EF 506/6/1/H57A nd
• Rebuilding of the old Greyhound Hotel, now Victoria Hotel, High St, for Reilly & Co (Walter Emden, 105-106 Strand, London WC) EF 506/6/1/1/21,23 Oct 1896
  
  (Walter Lawrence Emden (1847 – 1913) was one of the leading English theatre and music hall architects in the building boom of 1885 to 1915.)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Emden
  
  
• Erection of roof over courtyard at Victoria Hotel, High St, for Reilly & Co (Walter Emden, 105-106, Strand, London WC) EF 506/6/1/1/28 Dec 1896
  Awning to Victoria Hotel, High St (Walter Emden, 105/106 Strand, London WC) EF 506/6/1/2/65 Jun 1897
  
  

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• [Note from webmaster - my claim-to-fame regarding the Carlton is that my Nan used to clean there 'when it was still posh' - she recounted to me how she used to clean the copious brass features in the opulent staircases with a toothbrush - 'to make them sparkle'.
  
  Sometime in the late 1940s, convinced by a friend, my dad had ballroom dancing lessons in the Carlton, arranged by the Simpson School of Dancing.
  Later, after marrying my mother, he had the opportunity to take advantage of these lessons when he attended a dinner dance there for Crisswell's Garage.
  
  I remember the rear entrance into the Carlton, presumably the band's entrance and probably the kicking-out door. It had plain wooden doors set into a small alcove, at the front of the alcove were two low brick piers ... onto which you could sit and eat your fish & chips from the chip shop right next door - the location for this being where the Halifax Building Society is today in Market Street.]
  
  

• Sadly missed ...

• Shown below is a selection of comments on the Old Newmarket Facebook page:-
  
  

  '... I so remember all the murals of mexican ladies on the walls and wasnt that a fountain in the middle at some point? It really was quite beautiful such a shame it was lost to us'
  
  'We used to go to Ballet classes here on a Saturday morning--it seemed so enormous and grand and ever so slightly intimidating!'
  
  'lost because lack of money ,and no foresight.'
  
  '... we used to stand on that balcony and watch the DC4 play below in the Winter Garden. It had a beautiful sprung dance floor and many big bands played there.'
  
  

• 
  
  
  The above picture clearly shows the Carlton and it's position in the High Street ... the shear scale of the building dwarfs the surrounding properties.
  The Winter gardens can be seen towards the rear in the middle, as can the impressive frontage onto the High Street.
  
  

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• Many thanks to Tony Pringle for his information about the history of the hotel & pub and the photo 'Hotel Victoria'.
  
  
• Many thanks to Peter Norman for his details about the Newmarket Street Market Map 1904 and for his photos 'Boots c.1990',
  'The Carlton being demolished c.1977', 'The Winter Gardens, 'The Carlton c. 1976', 'Football Club Dinner in The Carlton c. 1950s',
  'Hotel Victoria c.1910s', 'Hotel Victoria c. 1900s' and 'Greyhound Hotel c. 1890s'
  
  
• Many thanks to 'Old Newmarket' for the photos 'The Carlton in the 1970s', 'Hotel Victoria c. 1912', 'Hotel Victoria c. 1910'
  and 'The Greyhound Courtyard c. 1880 (The Carlton)'.
  
  
• Photos 'Carlton Hotel 1977' by kind permission of the Newmarket Journal and the Newmarket Memories Facebook page.