The White Rose Public House, Mumbles by Brian E Davies
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NEW BOOK: -Mumbles and Gower Pubs by Brian E Davies
In 1854, John Williams was refused a spirit licence at the White Rose, Clements Row, Mumbles. This was on the sea front and was probably a basic beer-house. He clearly needed better premises and in 1856, he took over a private house at today’s location and was granted his full licence. At this time limestone quarrying and oyster dredging were booming in Oystermouth and there was a burgeoning tourist trade.
Passenger services on the Mumbles Railway resumed in 1860 and at around this time an extension was added to the front of the alehouse and then some shops were built alongside.
The White Rose, 1870
Mumbles, from Oystermouth Castle, late 1850s
The photo shows, J. WILLIAMS'S WHITE ROSE, on the pub, after he moved there in 1856, confirming that the name was in use even before the building was extended.
The White Rose Inn, post 1877
The licensees, Richard and Mary Hobbs, are standing in the slanted doorway that is still there. It is easy to see that the word WHITE was not visible from all angles, especially on many of the photos taken from the direction of Oystermouth Castle.
The White Rose, viewed from Clements Quarry, c1880
UNEARTHED - A bottle inscribed 'WHITE ROSE STORE.'
An advert from a Mumbles Press brochure, c.1910.
This medium sized bottle inscribed 'WHITE ROSE STORE MUMBLES,' was found in a garden in Newton Road and photographed by Craig Hopper.
A photo of another bottle, inscribed 'WHITE ROSE BOTTLING STORES MUMBLES', which may have held Spirits, was supplied by the author Brian E Davies.
Details of the new book on Mumbles and Gower Pubs
can be found below
In the early 1900s, at the time of the Religious Revivals, there was pressure on the Licensing Justices to close down many of the Mumbles alehouses. There were thousands of visitors from the Mumbles train and their behaviour could be a bit riotous! The White Rose was described at the time as ‘better than the others’. It had a stable for four horses and Mary Hobbs was ‘an exemplary landlady, keeping the house very clean’. Although it was threatened with closure, it survived despite the objections of Thomas Grimshaw (who admitted having been an abstainer for 50 years!)
In 1907 it had small, dark rooms and was considered ‘structurally unfit for visitors’. Soon afterwards the pub was rebuilt and the mock-Tudor style we see today first appeared. The rebuilt pub was sold in 1912 for £2425.
It continued to improve over the years, female toilets were introduced in 1947 and in 1977 one of the adjoining shops was included in the bar. Further expansion took place in 1984 when the premises on the corner of The Dunns were incorporated at a cost of £75,000.
The ‘White Rose’ was the badge of the House of York and it is also said that the Rose was the emblem of silence – however, a visit to The White Rose today will be met more with merriment than quiet meditation!
The 'slanted' doorway to the original building and this can be seen in the photo dated 1877 as well as the modern photo..
SS Canopic scrapped in 1925
Mumbles News advert June 1972
Editors note:
THE WHITE ROSE has always had the same name and this can be noted in the photos dated late 1850s and 1877 and is supported by other documentary evidence.