The Definitive Guide to the History of
Pubs and Beerhouses in Coventry

Drinking in an Old English Town

Earlsdon Stores, 112-114 Berkeley Road South

Alternative Addresses:	40 and 42 Cromwell Street
In 1852 Thomas Fletcher, 23, a watch finisher, and his uncle, Joseph Tranter, who was 35 years the elder, purchased Plot 228 on the corner of Providence Street and Cromwell Street (as Berkeley Road South was known then). It wasn't until seven years later that they built their two adjoining houses, with Fletchers front door on the corner of the building, now blocked by the shop frontage, and Tranters front door on Cromwell Street, still intact. Inside in fact it was one house, but given the close relationship between the two men it probably worked out amicably. In 1878 Tranter died. The watch trade was in decline and in 1863 Tranter had gone blind, so he had already turned his front corner parlour into a General Stores and Post Office. By 1901 the shop had become a Post Ofiice and beer retailer, that is an off-beerhouse, run by Thomas Fletcher. In 1904 he is just a beer retailer and he died in that year. The off license became a Mitchells and Butlers agency. In 1919 the premises obtained an on license and became the Earlsdon Stores Inn, a situation that continued until 1940. The premises is now Alexander Wines. I have been told that one can still identify the room that was used as a bar and that the premises has cellars. I can remember in the 1970s it sold cask Brew XI and Mike Hooper and I would go there with milk bottles for a few pints to drink round his house, when he lived in Stanley Road! The recent licensees who were also the owners of the InnSpire Bar in the city centre have now sold the premises which is to become a hairdressers. Just what Earlsdon needs another one of.
LICENSEES: 1901 - 1905 Thomas Fletcher post office & beer retailer 1907 - 1913 George Harris beer retailer 1919 - 1934 George Harris Earlsdon Stores Inn 1935 - 1940 F. Broughton Earlsdon Stores Inn