This week’s photo shows a now-vanished pub that was badly damaged in a fire in 1853 but stood for more than a century after that.
The Watford Observer is delighted to share photos from the Watford Museum archive and this week we recall this photo of the Kings Head pub from more than 90 years ago.
The Kings Head prior to 1853 from sketch by Buckler
The museum’s volunteer archivist Christine Orchard said: “The Kings Head is believed to date back to the 1600s and appears to have been an inn rather than just a pub.
View from the Kings Head following the burning down of the Market Hall, Illustrated London News, June 4, 1853
It was located in the Market Place (where Specsavers is now) and was a good size. A letting notice in an 1869 newspaper, about “the well-known Kings Head pub”, described that it “contains 15 rooms, well furnished”.
The Kings Head (far right) in Market place, c1880s
Everything must have been quite newly decorated as the pub had been badly damaged when the Market Hall, just in front of the pub, had burnt down in 1853.
The Kings Head in the 1950s or 1960s
“The pub closed in the early 1960s and the site was redeveloped.”
- Watford Museum is open Thursday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here