This well-known town centre site is now occupied by a fast food giant and was previously part of a much-loved high street store but before then it was home to a pub for more than a century.
During the past two weeks, the Watford Observer has been looking back at many of the town’s former pubs that have closed their doors for the last time.
All of these have previously featured as part of our weekly dip into the archives of our friends at Watford Museum.
- 12 more pictures of pubs that have shut in Watford
- Pictures of 10 pubs in Watford that have pulled their last pints
- Pictures of ten pubs that have shut in the Watford area
Today we are focusing on the former Kings Arms because of what the site became after the pub closed at the start of the 1960s.
The museum’s volunteer archivist Christine Orchard said: “The Kings Arms was on the corner of King Street and High Street and had a narrow front on the High Street. It opened around 1852 in the former gate lodge of Watford Place.
“An early landlord was William Seear, a Watford-born man, who was both wood sawyer and beer house keeper.
“John Spicer had the pub between at least 1871 and 1891. He was able to offer rooms for rent and this provided handy accommodation for three mail cart drivers who presumably were associated with the recently opened Post Office in Queens Road.
“The pub closed in 1961 and was demolished. Later Woolworths expanded their store to include the King Street corner site and today it is the home of a McDonalds.”
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