Old Coaching Hostel Given to National Trust

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 125, 12 June 1937, Page 18

Old Coaching Hostel Given to National Trust

LCiNDON — The George Inn, Southwark, a hostel of which the assoeiations go back to pre-Ref ormation- days, has been donated by the London and North Eastward' Railway to the National Trust. The condition is laid dowh that the property be preserved ' and continued as an inn. The George Inn is said to be one of the only two galleried coaching inns remaining in England, the other one being the New Inn at Gloucester. In the early days of railways it became the property of .the Great Northern, and later of the London and North Eastern Railway. The yard, which used to echo to the sound of liorses' hoofs, has long been nsed for railway purposes, but the inn hai always remained open to visitors. The earliest record of the George is that an inn of that name was burned in 1670, and again in 1676. The landlord, oue Waylaud, again rebuiJt it ancl paid a rontal of £50 and oue sugar loaf. It is this buildiug that is still stauding to-day. Charles Dickeus was associated with it, and the courtyard has been used by the Dickens Tabard Players for their periodical performances from his works.