Avenue Road

Erith

https://whatpub.com/prince-of-wales

Above photo 1900.

Above photo 1900, from Steve Thoroughgood.

Above photo 1900 showing the saloon bar.

Above photo 1900 showing the billiard room.

Above photo 1900 showing the back garden.

Above photo 1901.

Above photo, circa 1910, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above photo 22 May 1916 on the first day of the L.G.O.C. route 99.

Above postcard, date unknown.

Above photo date unknown. The Prince of Wales is shown on the right.

Above image circa 1965.

I am also informed by Jim Packer author of the "Lost Pubs of Bexley" that:- "A lease was granted on 1st January 1863 by the Wheatley Estate Trustees to John Starling, Wine and Spirit Merchant of Bexleyheath (at the Lord Bexley Arms), stating: “In consideration of costs of said John Starling had been in erecting and finishing .... was granted lease of the land with the messuage tenement and buildings lately erected thereon intended to be used as a Public House to be called by the sign of the Prince of Wales.” The Prince of Wales, then, was Albert Edward, eldest son of Queen Victoria, who was to marry Alexandra of Denmark that year. The building was substantial and ornate, many of the window keystones bearing the initials JS. Perhaps it was the stress of such a large undertaking - the mortgage in March being some £1200 - but John died on 26th May aged only 45 leaving a widow and 7-year-old son. Widow Elizabeth had made sufficient money that, in 1871, she sold property in Pier Road for £1150 and for an additional £50 cleared the mortgage on the pub. She ran the pub until she, too, died in 1891 and then it was run by her son, John Henry Starling, who later went bankrupt through property speculation. It was one of the premier pubs in Erith and later became a Watneys house.

In the 1990s permission to demolish and redevelop the site of this locally-listed pub was refused several times. At Easter 1992 the pub was gutted by a mysterious fire which burned the ground floor and second storey but left the first storey relatively unharmed. It was then demolished and a Macdonalds now occupies the site."

LICENSEE LIST

STARLING John Mr 1862+

STARLING Mrs Elizabeth Sarah 1874-91+ (widow age 53 in 1881)

PURCHASE W 1916+

WEST Bert "Dick" 1955-58

LINDSTROM Les 1980s-90s

https://pubwiki.co.uk/PrinceofWalesHotel.shtml

From the Post Office Directory 1874

From the Post Office Directory 1882

From the Post Office Directory 1891