Victoria Inn (Gasking Street)

On the corner of Gasking Street and Higher Street was, for many years, the Victoria Inn. Just down from, and on the other side of the road to the Woodside, which still stands. The Victoria site however is buried beneath the office block between what is left of the bottom of Gasking Street and North Street, north of Exeter Street.

Apparently renamed soon after Queen Victoria came to the throne (in 1837) records suggest that this was earlier known as the Alexander and Roxanna, an ancient Higher Street hostelry, quite how long it had been known by that name we don’t know but the couple it refers to must surely be Alexander III of Macedonia and his wife Roxane. Dubbed the ‘Great’, Alexander (356-323BC) was tutored by Aristotle and showed great promise at an early age. He married Roxane in 327 and a son, Alexander IV, was born after Alexander’s death in 323.

Licensees

1802 - Thomas Copplestone
1823 - W Cowles
1844 - Mary Widdicombe
1867 - Mrs R Hooper
1890 - Henry Chapple
1898 - A Petherick
1905 - CE Morgan
1914 - J Shea