THIS
STORY LAST UPDATED:
10 March 2004 1315 GMT
The Old George Inn open to the public |
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remarkable wood-panelled banqueting hall |
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Through
a door on the High street, in Salisbury, through a maze of offices,
fire doors and breeze block corridors and before you know it you're
back in the 15th century. |
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Through
a door on the High street, in Salisbury, through a maze of offices,
fire doors and breeze block corridors and before you know it you're
back in the 15th century.
Well not exactly but you will find yourself inside an ancient medieval
hostelry aka The Old George Inn.
The Old George Inn, now perched above the main entrance of the Old
George Mall, has been providing bed and ‘board’ since 1364.
But it hasn't been open to the public since the mid 90s when its last
incarnation, The Bay Tree Restaurant, closed down.
Since then the Inn, with its entrance blocked off from the street
below, has languished disused, empty and closed to the public.
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Now
as part of the Heritage Open Days along with thousands of private
homes, factories, castles, follies and industrial sites across the
country The Old George is being opened up to the public.
On Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th September The Old George Inn will
be open for free guided tours.
But be warned with steep steps, a warren of corridors and uneven floors
it's not for everyone but if you are able it's well worth it.
As you push open the last fire door, leaving the mall behind you,
you enter a remarkable wood-panelled banqueting hall.
Trussed together by a forest of pillars and oak beams, the great hall
not only boasts a minstrel's gallery but an intricately carved
Jacobean mantelpiece.
Above you, on two beams ends, hang two crudely carved figure heads
of Edward II and his Queen Isabella.
Queen Isabella, nicknamed "the she-wolf of France", was
fiery to say the least and had her husband done to death which might
explain why they appear to be glaring at each other.
The bay-window, overlooking the high street, was built in 1453 at
a cost of just £1.00 by some Italians doing a spot of moonlighting
from their work on the Cathedral.
But the most impressive part of the Old George Inn has to be its heavy
weight celebrity guest list.
The diarist Samuel Pepys booked in for a night where he "lay
in a silke bed and had very good diet". But he found the bill
so exorbitant that he became "mad" and had a row with the
landlady and moved to a cheaper inn the next morning.
In 1645 Oliver Cromwell stopped off at the Old George for bed and
breakfast on his way to joining the army and it also crops up in Charles's
Dickens's novel "Martin Chuzzlewit".
Even William Shakespeare and his strolling players are said to have
performed a "one night stand" in the Inn's courtyard which
once stabled up to 50 horses.
All in all it's a unique opportunity to have a wander around this
glorious hidden treasure and to have a potter around in the past.
Tours are at 30 min intervals and booking is required.
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HERITAGE OPEN DAYS
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