New Inn (Highgate)
98 Highgate LA9 4HE on the west side of Highgate between 96 Highgate (The Turkish Barber Shop) and 100 Highgate (the Marvic Hotel). The rear of the property opens on to New Inn Yard 94 Highgate.
Curwen, 1900 p155
New Inn
The next house is the “ New Inn,” now no longer new but outwardly little altered, if we except the removal or the old latticed panes and the substitution of the modern sheet glass. Internally it is low, but has had, at some time, many good rooms, the black oak floors of which are pegged. In the kitchen is an old oaken cupboard carved with the initials and date
F
I A
1658
and there is also some decorated cornice work worthy of being scraped free from its innumerable coatings of lime-wash. Here was born the eminent English judge, Sir Alan Chambre, in 1739; and here, too, his grandfather, Alan, died in 1744, and his father, Walter, in 1753. Subsequently in 1766 Sir Alan purchased Abbot Hall, and abandoned this family house with its “ spacious entrance hall, transome windows, and fine garden extending to the Garth Heads.”
The house must have, very soon after Sir Alan’s day, become a public inn, for we find in the year 1796 that the Friendly Society held its meetings here, and in October, 1802, the inn advertised to be let by ticket as “all that large and convenient traveller’s and carrier’s inn, containing in front 22 yards and in depth 10 yards. On the ground floor is a large kitchen, three parlours, a pantry, and other conveniences ; on the upper floor is a good dining room and bedchambers that will contain fifteen to sixteen beds ; with a brewhouse, cellars, pump, and back yard, two stables containing forty stalls and hay lofts above them. At the same time will be let by ticket a large entire yard with a good pump and eight new built stables to contain fifty horses occupied by carriers, and two warehouses close adjoining, occupied by London, Leeds, Wigan, Liverpool, and Carlisle carriers ; also a coach house and granary.”
In 1811 George Chamley, proprietor, advertises a light post wagon from Manchester to Glasgow and Edinburgh, arriving at Kendal every day. Both of which advertisements serve to shew that in the days of pack horses and stage coaches the New Inn must have been a not unimportant house. My last note is that it was put up for sale on the 25th day of September, 1819, when it was in the possession of Mrs. Burton, together with the extensive premises behind in the occupation of William Bousfield, Francis Webster, and others. “ Mr. James McNaught, the owner, upon the premises, will show the same,” &c., &c.
