Mason’s Arms

On the south side of Pembroke Street, between Stanley Street and St Stephen’s Street stood one of the many ale houses that the street once boasted. Indeed around the time it closed, in the late 1860s, there were twenty pubs, beer retailers and wine and spirit vaults operating simultaneously (among them the Half Moon, the King’s Arms, the Rose and Crown, the Royal Exchange and the King William. Perhaps the fact that there was quite so much competition had something to do with its closure. Whatever the reason the Mason’s appears to have called time, for the last time, when Charles Marsh was landlord here bringing to an end the only pub in the Three Towns ever to bear this relatively common pub name – such is not to forget, of course, the Masonic Inn, the Stonemason’s or the Freemason’s, all of which were, and in some cases, still are, open in the area today.

Licensees

1812 - William Stanlake
1814 - J Knight
1822 - Henry Naylor
1830 - William Best
1838 - James Rogers
1844 - John Barnes
1852 - John Arscott
1864 - Charles Marsh