Remains of the Old George Inn

Summary

Commercial storage building incorporating the remains of a medieval masonry building and gateway, built in the 15th or early 16th century; the first floor was re-built and a second floor added around 1929.

Reasons for Designation

The remains of the Old George Inn, a medieval masonry structure built in the C15 or early C16 including a gateway, rebuilt and extended over the ground floor in 1929, now a commercial storage building, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the rare surviving remnants of medieval masonry at ground floor level, over which the commercial building was rebuilt in the C20.
* the remaining medieval fabric displays high levels of quality in its design and craftsmanship.

Historic interest:

* as an expression of the major importance and influence of Bedford in the medieval period.

Group value:

* for the historic and functional group value it holds with another important medieval building, the Church of St Paul (Grade I), which stands approximately 100m to the south on St Paul’s Square.

History

The ancient building in Mayes Yard known as the ‘Remains of the Old George Inn’, to the rear of the former Debenhams, was until the mid-C20 accessed via Old George Yard between 46 and 48 High Street. The Old George Inn occupied the south and west sides of the yard, and a public right of way led through an archway on the west side of the yard and north to Silver Street. A sketch of the historic building on the west side of the yard (hereafter referred to as ‘the Remains of the Old George Inn’) by Bradford Rudge, probably drawn in the mid-C19, shows the two-storey building from the east with a recessed archway, and statuary niches and traceried window surrounds to its first floor. In 1881, in his notes on objects of interest in Bedford and its neighbourhood, Dudley Elwes recorded: ‘on each side of arch facing High Street are 2 niches with shields; the right is cross of St George; the left is old coat of arms of town. Over right niche and above string course is niche with figure of George and Dragon. Window over arch of transitional period, as are all large windows, probably insertion into older building, as walls and roof appear earlier. On each side of arch in upper storey are 2 plain small oblong windows, acting as lights for 2 small doors opposite, now blocked, from which descended 2 external stone staircases, coming down on each side of the archway on the further side. i.e. the upper storey had two rooms, each with a separate entrance, and one large hall over the archway between 2 small passages…’

In 1912 the Victoria County History volume for Bedfordshire recorded that ‘The George Inn still preserves traces of a very early building. Its history can be traced back certainly to the C15 and probably dates from much earlier. The building is C15, built of stone with a tiled roof, but is now in a dilapidated condition, and used for storage.’ Photographs of the building, taken from the west and east around 1900 and 1914 respectively, were reproduced by Wildman in his ‘Bygone Bedford’ in 1974. The east elevation is shown in greater detail in a glass-slide conjectural drawing in the Henman Collection at Bedford Central Library [date unknown]. The Old George Inn ceased trade in 1927 and the site was acquired by EP Rose and Son, commercial drapers; a deed plan of 1929 shows the ‘Olde George Yard’ on the west side of High Street with an ‘Ancient Building’ enclosing the west end of the yard incorporating an archway. Around that time, the first floor of the historic building was rebuilt and a second floor added. An advertisement for the centenary celebrations of EP Rose and Son in 1938 shows construction of a new department store on the corner of High Street and Silver Street was completed that year.

The ‘Remains of the George Inn’ were scheduled in 1950 and described as: ‘A gateway dating from the late 15th or early 16th century, with flanking walls. In one of those walls is an original window-opening with tracery. The only surviving Mediaeval building in the town of Bedford.’ Some older sources and the early scheduling files referred to the building as the ‘Remains of the House of the Priors of Newnham’ or ‘Prioratus’. Photographs of the scheduled building dated 02 October 1952 show the exterior of the east and west archways, as well as the interior walls of the carriageway including a blocked door surround on the north wall. Messrs EP Rose sought to extend their premises further along Silver Street in 1954, closing off the west entrance to the Old George Yard, and works to the scheduled building. Letters from the Ministry of Works in 1954 stated ‘no objection’ to the carrying out of proposed works ‘which will entail the destruction of this scheduled monument’ and that the Ministry did not wish to salvage the medieval arch. The commercial premises were later acquired by Debenhams around 1975. An article in the Architects’ Journal in 1978 recorded the sale of the ‘medieval Gothic doorway from the last medieval building in Bedford High Street’ for £45. Proposals for demolition of the scheduled monument to create an extension for Debenhams were approved in 1977, however these proposals were not carried out. Notes by a Field Monument Warden in October 1986 recorded that no evidence of a traceried window survived by that time, and the medieval archway had been replaced by a square opening with a reinforced steel joist spanning the entrance to Debenhams’ loading bay. Debenhams ceased commercial activity in Bedford in 2021.

Details

Commercial storage building incorporating the remains of a medieval masonry building and gateway, built in the C15 or early C16; the first floor was rebuilt and second floor added around 1929.

MATERIALS: the roof has a plain tile covering. The ground floor is constructed of coursed rubble stone, and first and second floors of red brick laid in English bond with coursed rubble stone quoins and window jambs.

PLAN: the building is rectangular on plan, aligned north to south. Attached at its north-east corner to the rear of the former Debenhams department store (constructed in 1938 fronting High Street and Silver Street, extended along High Street in 1955).

EXTERIOR: this rectangular-plan three-storey building to the rear of the former Debenhams department store incorporates the medieval remains of the Old George Inn as coursed rubble stone at ground floor level, surviving in some areas to a maximum of 4m in height. The first floor was rebuilt in brick and a second floor added around 1929; the red brick walls are laid in English bond, with coursed rubble stone incorporated into the quoins and window jambs. The pitched roof, rebuilt around 1929, has a plain tile covering. The east and west elevations each had a medieval pointed-arch to a central carriageway, however these arches were removed and replaced by flat-arched reinforced concrete beams around 1955; the west opening is enclosed by a roller door. The west elevation to Mayes Yard has a camber-arched door opening to the right of the archway occupying the position of an earlier door or window opening. The first and second floors each have seven bays of flat-arched metal-framed casement windows. The east elevation has a single window to the second floor, two windows to the first floor, and both floors have a fire escape door and shared metal stairs descending to the loading bay. At ground floor level, a C20 corrugated-sheet roof extends east over the loading bay.

INTERIOR: the north wall of the former carriageway retains exposed rubble masonry and evidence of a blocked segmental-arched doorway in a chamfered surround near the west end. Over the blocked doorway, three flat-arched windows were introduced around 1929. A flat concrete ceiling was introduced over the former carriageway in the C20. The south wall of the former carriageway was rebuilt in brick in the C20 and painted. The storeroom to the south retains exposed rubble masonry walls; it too has a flat concrete ceiling. Access to the upper floors is granted by a winder stair in the building attached to the north-east corner. The upper floors each have a corridor running north – south along the east side, and former storage rooms, work rooms, rest rooms and lavatories off the west sides; these rooms do not retain any historic fixtures.

Sources

Books and journals
Wildman, R, Bygone Bedford (1974),
Elwes, Dudley G Cary, Bedford and its Neighbourhood (1881), 39-40

Other
Bedford Borough Council Historic Environment Record MBD991 ‘(Remains of) the George Inn’
The Architect’s Journal, 07 June 1978, p1084
Victoria County History, Bedfordshire, 3, (1912), p23

End of official list entry