The White Hart Inn, on the left, had lost its licence three years
before this picture was taken. At an auction in June 1929
Messrs. Hodgson, Kingston Brewery, had bought all 36 licensed
properties then owned by Crooke's, amongst which was the
White Hart[1].
The inn's fate became clear in January 1932 when an application
was submitted to the local court for the removal the licence
and for it to be given instead to premises in Farncombe
that were about to be constructed. This was followed in May
the same year by "an application for confirmation of
the grant of the removal of the licence of the White Hart
... to the site of a new inn which Messrs. Hodson ...propose
to erect at Farncombe". The application was granted
but to gain the licence Hodgsons had to agree to discourage "perpendicular
drinking" in
the private and saloon bars of the new build. Interestingly,
the site had been "purchased, or ear-marked,
for the last four years"[3].
The troublesome "perpendicular drinking" affected
the White Hart in 1918 when there had been a number of prosecutions
in Godalming under the Non-Treating Order. This included
Mr. and Mrs. Geld [Gould?], then running the Inn, who were
reported to the authorities because two cadets were drunk
on the premises[4].
Following the licence transfer there was considerable
speculation regarding this White Hart's future. The
building, which has the date 1570 on the front, was
described as one of the show places of the High Street.
The owners were said to be willing to approach the Council
before the sale of the property was decided. Rumours that
it would be turned into a cinema were denied, whilst others
would have liked to to have become a public
library and museum. Some "rich Americans" apparently
intimated that they would like to pull it down and ship it
to the US. This was, after all, a time when other British
buildings had been transported across the Atlantic[5]. In
the end, it was sold in 1933 and remains an asset on the
High Street today[6].
Shop units had been added to the ground floor, amongst which
was Acorn Cleaners. A pre-existing shopkeeper was A Jury,
Tobacconist. A large estate agent's sign for Folker & Horton
of Railway Approach announced that the two upper floors were
to let and there is a small "Let" sign pasted across
it. The first floor jetty was added in 1932[7].
A sign below the first floor window of the Market House
(Pepperpot) in the centre of the photo is a small sign that
reads "Museum".
It is unclear what the RAC patrolman, who was standing in
front of the Pepperpot, was doing although he was probably
directing the car's driver rather than controlling the traffic[8]. It
was his bike that was parked against the left hand pavement.
The car's registration number was BPC 742. |
