Hampshire Hog

“…on the south side of a certain street called New Street within the Borough of Plymouth … a dwelling house with courtlage and Garden behind same … which said premises were formerly a Public or Victualling house and known by the name or sign of the Hampshire Hog but have for many years past been occupied as a private house”

So read the wording on a lease of 31 New Street, dated 4 July 1876.

Some fifty years later this photograph was taken and it gives us some idea of how the street would have appeared in 1876 (not a lot different to today), and indeed how No.31 may have looked when it was the Hampshire Hog. Operating more recently as the Green Lanterns and currently as the Himalayan Spice Restaurant, the building retains an ancient feel both inside and out and one can but wonder who the south-coast exile was who named the pub thus, but certainly the expression has been around for sometime. “A Hampshire hog” wrote Francis Grose in ‘A Provincial Glossary’ in 1787, “is a jocular appellation for a Hampshire man; Hampshire being famous for a fine breed of hogs, and the excellency of the bacon made there.”