Lifeboat Inn, Church Street, Workington

[mientajb]

My great grandfather, John Nicholson, was the publican of the Lifeboat Inn in Church Street, Workington in 1891. ( I do not think that this should be confused with the similarly named pub in Harrington ). We recently visited Workington and were disappointed to find that most of Church Street is now a grassed park with very few buildings remaining.

I have not been able to find any references to the Lifeboat Inn either online or at the archives. Neither have I been able to find out why the whole of Church Street was demolished. I was wondering if it had been bombed during the war as it is relatively near to the docks.

Can anyone help?

[Kay99]

Apologies -wrong place

[sue smith]

He is listed in Bulmer's Directory as being there in 1901 -

"NICHOLSON John beerhouse Lifeboat Inn 19 Church st Workington (1901)"


http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~haydencowan/Lacey/Census%20Bowes/Workington%201901.pdf for the full directory. A search on "Church St Workington" shows 43 results and gives you an idea of what else was about at the time.

[mientajb]

Wonderful. Thank you. However, the search facility does not seem to be there.

Still need to know what happened to Church Street.

[sue smith]

Ah yes no search facility. "Find" on a laptop or PC (ctrl and F key together) should work for you?

[sue smith]

If you track the postcode for Church St on www.old-maps.co.uk you can use the thumbnail views to track the development (or otherwise) of Church St. It appears to have been cleared in the late 1960s / early 1970s. Given the date I would suspect slum clearance?

[mientajb]

Thank you again.

I have dropped it into a spreadsheet for searching. Quite a cosmopolitan street.

[CUMBERLAND SAUSAGE]

The then Town Council demolished a few areas in Workington at that time, including Church Street and the Marsh and Quay areas, in doing so they destroyed some healthy vibrant communities, but didn't have a clue what to do with the land left empty, which it still is today.
I think that last two pubs to go were "The Ancient Mariner" (Honkey Tonk) and "The Miners Arms".

[mientajb]

It is quite sad when this kind of thing happens. I much prefer what has happened in places like Liverpool where houses were sold off for £1 on the understanding that the new owners brought them up to a reasonable standard.

As you say, a whole community was just eradicated. Must have been traumatic at the time.