Where is This? No.270

Published on: 29 Jul, 2017
Updated on: 29 Jul, 2017

By David Rose

Many readers who replied to last week’s mysteries appear to remember the Vintners Arms, that was in North Street.

The building is now occupied by coffee shop Harris + Hoole and stationers Paperchase.

In the book The Breweries and Public Houses of Guildford, the now late Mark Sturley noted that the Vintners Arms is indicated on the 1823 Wey Navigation map – thus giving some clue to its age. It had been one of the pubs owned by Richard Elkin’s North Street Brewery and was sold to Hodgsons’ Kingston Brewery in 1890.

It was partially destroyed by fire in 1932, but rebuilt. Courage & Co took ownership in 1943, closing it in 1966 and selling the site to the Church Commissioners for £100,000.

The location of last week’s quirky picture was suggested by some as the roof of Jamie’s Italian restaurant in Onslow Street and also Guildford railway station. However, it is the roof of the H A Fox Jaguar garage on the corner of Ladymead and Woodbridge Road – also once known as the Morris Depot.

Click here to see last week’s post and all the replies at the foot of it, with extra details that are worth reading!

What’s going on here and when? Or anything else of interest you can comment on? Click to enlarge in a new window.

This week’s mystery vintage picture is obviously the Town Bridge at the foot of Guildford High Street. But can you suggest what is going on and when? The picture is in the collection at the Guildford Institute.

Where are these red phone boxes? Click to enlarge in a new window.

Not so many red phones boxes around these days and you certainly don’t often see a pair. So where can these be found in Guildford town centre?

If you think you know the answers and can add some extra details, please leave a reply in the box below.

The answers, along with the next pair of images, will be published at about the same time next week.

Responses to Where is This? No.270

Bernard Parke Reply

July 29, 2017 at 9:00 am

1. The opening by the Earl of Onslow of the new Town Bridge after the previous one was destroyed by timber from Moon’s yard during a flood. A small section of the old bridge can be seen in the High Street.

2. Tunsgate.
John Lomas Reply

July 29, 2017 at 9:31 am

The bridge is obviously the “new” Town Bridge dating from early 1902.

There appears to be a parallel bridge on the upstream side which could be a temporary footbridge erected after the loss of the earlier stone bridge in 1900, or built for the purposes of the new bridge construction.

The occasion is possibly celebrating Edward VII’s Coronation in August 1902 though it must have been uncomfortable in heavy formal clothing if it is the summer.

Other possibilities could be a royal visit by the king later in the year, or as an outside chance it relates to the accession/coronation of George V in 1910/11.
Dave Middleton Reply

July 29, 2017 at 2:24 pm

The two telephone boxes are at the bottom of Tunsgate, just behind the arch.

The old picture is of the Town Bridge.

I suspect the occasion was the official opening of the current bridge on 5th February 1902 after it was built to replace the previous bridge that was swept away in the flood of 15th and 16th February 1900, when timber washed down from Moon’s timber yard got wedged under the bridge blocking it and the force of water destroyed it.

The people at the back of the picture on the “wrong” side of the railings, are either very tall and wearing long wellies, or are standing on the temporary bridge that was put up while the Town Bridge was being rebuilt.

Apparently it took over a year of arguing between the town and county councils to decide who should pay for the new bridge and in the end they shared the cost.

The existing bridge was opened by Councillor A F Asher, the then Mayor of Guildford.

By the early 1980s, the current bridge was in poor repair and was reconstructed by Surrey County Council and reopened by the then Mayor Jack Patrick JP and Councillor T Waring of Surrey County Council.
John Lomas Reply

July 29, 2017 at 4:07 pm

The phone boxes are hidden from the High Street behind Tunsgate.
Bill and Doug Reply

August 5, 2017 at 9:56 am

We think it’s Armistice day celebrations. We wonder how the temporary seating on the outside of the bridge was constructed. The phone boxes are in Tunsgate.

We’re sure you’ve had this pic before, perhaps you ought to have a “Through Time Gold” feature?

[David Rose replies: perhaps we’ll have a greatest hits Christmas special to see in the new year.]
Chris Townsend Reply

August 5, 2017 at 10:27 am

The vintage picture shows the opening of the new Town Bridge by the Mayor, Alexander Forsythe Asher, on 5th February 1902, as stated on the plaque on the bridge.

Aldermen are present in their fur-trimmed robes, a mace-bearer (I think) and the town crier next to him, in his tricorn hat.

The old bridge was destroyed on 16th February 1900, following severe floods which lifted sawn timber from the stacks of John Moon’s timber yard (where Debenham’s is today).

The timber floated the short distance to the bridge and was wedged under it, the force of water and timber lifting the arches and causing the bridge to collapse.

There was controversy over who was responsible for re-building the bridge. Meanwhile, a temporary footbridge was built for pedestrians, presumably where some of the spectators – “thousands” according to newspapers – are standing. Other traffic could use the Onslow Bridge, opened in 1882.

The building on the site of the present White House was once the home of the Moon family, with their stonemasons’ yard next to it.

In his old age, my grandfather recalled seeing the devastation of the old bridge; I wonder if he was present at the opening of the new one, or was he hard at work that Wednesday?

The pair of phone boxes is to the rear of Tunsgate Arch. They are grade II listed, of type K6, designed by the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935.
Margaret Cole Reply

August 6, 2017 at 4:17 pm

The two phone boxes are in Tunsgate.

Not sure what the celebration was on the town bridge.
Carol Norris Reply

August 7, 2017 at 4:38 pm

I wonder if the bridge it replaced was made of wood. If so, it is likely that the dresser and table made by Mr Purser of Bury Fields for my mother were made of wood from that bridge.

I still have the dresser but the table was sold some years ago.
- Dave Middleton Reply
  
  August 8, 2017 at 9:59 am
  
  The old Town Bridge was made of stone, with wrought iron railings. The furniture Carol Norris has may possibly have been made from wood “salvaged” from that from Moon’s timber yard that was washed downstream in the flood, jammed under the bridge, causing its collapse.
Carol Norris Reply

August 15, 2017 at 3:38 pm

Maybe as Dave Middleton suggests the furniture was from Moon’s. The garden of our house, Westbury House in Bury Street, backed on to the river at Millmead. The furniture is made from very lovely oak. I wonder if Moon’s dealt in that sort of wood?

Ed: It is very likely that Moon’s would have stocked oak around 1900. It is only in more recent times that hardwoods have become less common in timber merchants, and even so they are still available.