Albion Inn

At one time there were ten or more hotels and inns in Pembroke Street, one of them was the Albion. It stood towards the western end of the street on the north corner of Pembroke Street and Canterbury Street - where new flats are already replacing those that were built here sometime after this photograph was taken in the mid-1950s.

Albion is an old, somewhat poetic, name for England, probably arising out of the Latin "albus" - white, a reference to the white cliffs along stretches of the southern coast. Many naval ships have borne that name and before the local rugby club of that name came into being there were a number of Albion inns and hotels in the Three Towns, now there are none.

The first reference to this as the Albion came in 1877, earlier records suggest that it may once have been known as the King William.