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

Drinking in an Old English Town

Market Hall Tavern, 19-20 Market Place

Alternative Addresses:	Women's Market Place
These premises have been known by different names during their history:	FROM	TO	NAME
	1864	1872	Market Hall Tavern
	1864	1872	Market House Tavern
	1864	1872	Market Tavern
	1872	1929	White Rose
A postcard featuring the old Market Tower is a rare view of Market Place, which led through from where Broadgate and Cross Cheaping met to the tower, where you could turn left and take Market Street back to Smithford Street. The Market Tavern / White Rose is on the left and The Lamp Tavern is on the corner of Market Street to the left in the distance where we would find the Arcade Vaults at No.6 and the Market Vaults at No.22. Wilson records this pub as possibly being the Pack Horse, West Orchard, and then the MARKET HALL TAVERN / MARKET HOUSE TAVERN (the names appeared to be interchangeable, depending on which newspaper was reporting!) in 1864, when a new license was granted to Isaac Brown who later in 1869, transferred it to R.P. Barber. However, the Pack Horse has now been found to have closed in 1841, after which it became a shop. By 1871, however, Barber had failed to keep control of behaviour at the tavern, and so, after an official complaint to the justices by a temperance committee, Henry Saunders, a "respectable person", was found to take over the license of the place described that "no house in Coventry could bear a worse character". The sign must have then become WHITE ROSE and C&B records this in 1874, Licensee Henry Sanders. In 1929 the license was surrendered for the rebuilding of the CASTLE VAULTS, Market Place. It closed on 30th September, 1929.
LICENSEES: 1864 - 1869 Isaac Brown 1869 - 1871 Robert Potts Barber 1871 Henry Sanders 1874 David Sidwell
Street plan of 1851