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

Drinking in an Old English Town

Sir Thomas White, 18 White Street

Alternative Addresses:	Norton Place, Norton Street
Sir Thomas White (1492 - 1566) was a principal member of the guild of Merchant Taylors. He served as Sheriff of London in 1547, and was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1553. He was knighted in the same year by Queen Mary I. He was a member of the commission for the trial of Lady Jane Grey. He was subsequently the founder of St. John's College, Oxford, and used his prosperity as a clothworker to benefit nearly thirty cities and towns throughout England in at least some of which his trade had probably been particularly extensive. One such town was Coventry which, to rescue it from its 'great ruin and decay', he enabled by a gift of £1,400 to buy in 1542 a large amount of former priory property in and near the town. He bought Whitefriars Monastery in Coventry at the dissolution to use as a private residence and he endowed charities locally. In 1852 a new license was granted for this pub. In 1898 the pub was leased by Phillips and Marriott for 21 years for £45 per annum plus a £95 bonus from J. Warden of Walsgrave on Sowe. There was a clause allowing the purchase of the pub during the term of the lease for £2,800. In 1919 they did, in fact, buy the pub. It closed in 1968.
LICENSEES: 1852 John Smith 1868 Thomas Cole 1871 William Hutt, trimming manufacturer & licenses victualler 1874 William Holt 1879 George Rice 1886 - 1891 C. L. Smith 1893 - 1896 Benjamin Haymes 1899 - 1910 Henry Joseph Sadler 1914 - 1922 Frederick Wilson Foster 1924 - 1927 D. E. Taylor 1929 Mrs. F. Taylor 1931 - 1932 S. Moore 1935 - 1940 H. V. Morris 1958 A. Ward 1959 - 1964 Thomas Downing 1964 - 1968 Annie May Wood