Leicester's Lost Pubs, By Barry Lount and Chris Jinks

Cricketer's Rest Inn, 3 Abbey Gate

Formerly The Robin Hood

This pub started life as The Robin Hood in the 1840s (also listed around this time as The Old Original Robin Hood) and changed its name to The Cricketers Rest by 1870 - presumably to avoid confusion with another pub called The Old Robin Hood just around the corner in Woodgate. It appears that the former landlord of the Abbey Gate pub left to take over the one in Woodgate and decided to keep the Robin Hood name for his new pub! The pub in Woodgate incidentally, had previously been known as The Golden Fleece.

Back to the pub in Abbey Gate. It stood on the Southeast side of Abbey Gate alongside two cottages numbered Numbers 1 and 1a Abbey Gate with the River Soar forming the boundary of the property at the rear. The landlord of the pub was eager to take advantage of its position as by 1875 notices could be seen which advertised “Pleasure Boats on Hire”. The original pub was later demolished along with the two aforementioned cottages and a new larger pub which now had a frontage to Abbey Gate of 88 feet was erected on the site.

The pub was purchased by Leicester Brewing & Malting Company Limited of Charnwood Street, Leicester on 20th August 1920. The property was then transferred on the 1st of October 1956 to Ansells Brewery Limited following the take-over of LBM in 1952. The pub finally closed its doors around 1990, whereupon the building was used as a design consultants' showroom.

This page last updated: May 28, 2008
Taken from "The Leicester Drinker" Issue 13 January/ February 1999

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