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

Drinking in an Old English Town

Saint George, Gosford Street

These premises have been known by different names during their history:	FROM	TO	NAME
	1563	1650	SAINT GEORGE
	1650	1781	GEORGE
	1828	1853	GEORGE AND DRAGON
St George is the patron saint of England. He is often coupled with a dragon. An inn, the Saint George in Gosford Bars, near the chapel of Saint George, is recorded in 1563. It is later mentioned in 1625, 1650 and 1668. It became the GEORGE AND DRAGON. In c1907 Mary Dormer Harris writes 'On the south side of Gosford Gate, and running east beyond it stood the diminutive chapel of S. George on Dover Bridge; it survived until 1820. It should not be forgotten that there hung on the chapel's western end the bladebone of the Dun Cow slain by Guy, Earl of Warwick. After the chapel's demolition the bone served as an inn sign at Dunchurch,then it passed successively into the hands of two well-known antiquaries, Matthew Holbeche Bloxham and William George Fretton'. It is believed tht these Dun Cow bladebones were really whale bones. 'One of the guilds, that of S. George, which consisted particularly of journeyman tailors, was wont in 1425 to meet in the chapel here. Laurence Cook was the life-owner of the same in 1439, (at) what time the Nativity Guild gained license to hold land. Confiscated with other guild and charity lands, S. George's was repurchased by the Corporation by charter of 6 Edward VI. By that time it had fallen from its high estate as a chapel, and was let out in tenaments to poor folk.' Gosford Street 1912 (Photo courtesy of David Fry)
LICENSEES: 1625 W. Hopkins 1650 Jane Hopkins