Union Inn

Drake Street was a small thoroughfare running from just below the site of the Old Town Gate at its eastern end, to the nineteenth century market at the other end. It sported two pubs, the Farmer’s and the Union Inn. While the Farmer’s looked down into Radford Place, and the side of the Market, the Union, at No.15 was three doors further away from the Market on a site more or less marked today by the Cornwall Street entrance to Marks and Spencer. William Bunney, the watchmaker was on one side and Browning the plumber on the other side.

A Blitz victim in 1941 the Union, owned by the New Victoria Brewery, Hyde Park Road, and leased by Ind Coope, was never reopened or rebuilt, however the license was, much later, transferred to the Strathmore Hotel in Elliot Street on the Hoe.

Licensees

1844 - James Hilson
1850 - John Willcocks
1880 - Courtney Lavers
1898 - John Broad
1903 - T Menhennet
1911 - F Starling
1919 - Anna Twitty.