The Coal Exchange first opened as a public house in South Street in 1861.
The name of this Emsworth pub derives from the coal traded between the north-east coast in exchange for timber sourced from nearby Stansted Park. This lumber was used for pit-props, the strong wooden supports used to hold up the roofs of coal mine tunnels.
Formerly a private house, with a stable as well as an orchard and garden, the Coal Exchange pub was once part of a continuous row of houses now interrupted by the South street car park entrances. The house to build the pub was purchased by brewers G. A. Gale for £475 in 1859, a real bargain compared to today’s house prices!
Did you know?
Up until 1982 it was perfectly legal to refuse to serve women in British pubs, traditionally male environments. This all changed following the legal case of solicitor Tess Gill and journalist Anna Coote. The pair were banned from El Vino pub on Fleet Street for standing with their male colleagues at the bar, rather than sitting at the tables that women were supposed to be confined to. They took their case to the Court of Appeal, where a landmark ruling said women could no longer be refused service in pubs. Following the decision Tess and Anna headed straight to the El Vino bar, leading one bartender to comment, “There are more women at the bar than men – it’s chaos”!
The pub has frosted windows advertising ‘Horndean Ales and Stouts’, a Gale beer brand at that time. It also has superb and eye-catching green tiling that covers the front of the pub on the right side of the central door.
From 1800 ceramic tiling was used to help a pub stand out from its competitors. Nearby Portsmouth brewers, led by Brickwoods, engaged in tough battles to outdo each other with impressive pub buildings, so the smaller brewers fought back with elaborately tiled facades too. As pubs were a great place to display the quality of Victorian tilemakers products, brewers and pub architects could often get good deals on the tiles.
Did you know?
Ceramic tiles also have the practical benefit of being long lasting and easy to clean, very useful for cleaning up when people used to stand outside to drink beer and when street mud from the roads, tobacco smoke and soot was commonplace!
- See more about the Coal Exchange pub Emsworth – www.thecoalexchange.co.uk
- The landmark court case that allowed women to be served in pubs – click here
- Information courtesy of Emsworth museum – https://emsworthmuseum.org.uk