Royal Portland Arms
The Royal Portland Arms is a public house of 18th century origin in Fortuneswell. It is the oldest public house trading on the island and is known for its association with King George III. The building has been Grade II listed since September 1978.
History
The Royal Portland Arms dates to the 18th century and originally traded under the name Portland Arms Inn or Hotel. The inn was patronised by King George III and his suite on many of his summer family holidays to Weymouth between 1789 and 1805. On his excursions to Portland, the King enjoyed dishes of Portland mutton, wheatears and other local delicacies, and was particularly enthralled with the puddings made by the landlady, Mrs Gibbs, so much so that he christened it the "Royal Pudding" and had it advertised in the Dorset County Chronicle. In a feature on Portland which mentioned the King's visits to the inn, the National Standard wrote in 1833: "The landlady's art of cooking was of a very superior cast, and never failed to afford the highest satisfaction. It is positively stated that, on one occasion, his majesty and suite, having found the taste of the pudding so exquisite, actually remained at table until a second edition of it was produced, for which they had all reserved a corner." In c. 1852, the "Royal" was added to the inn's name in honour of its connection to the King.
As one of the principal hospitality establishments on the island, the Royal Portland Arms was regularly used as a meeting place and venue throughout the 19th century, as well as for public auctions and inquests. Two notable celebratory dinners held there were for the opening of the Merchants' Railway in 1826 and the laying of the foundation stone of the first Ferry Bridge in 1837. In 1833, it was described as "one of the best houses of entertainment on the island" and in 1837, a writer for the Penny Magazine stayed there during a visit to the island and called it "one of those retired country inns, where visitors are treated with a homely but warm-hearted attention, which places them almost on the footing of friends". The inn was also home to the Fortuneswell post office for a number of years during the mid-19th century. J. G. Harrod & Co.'s Postal and Commercial Directory of Dorset and Wiltshire for 1865 listed it as a family and commercial hotel, posting establishment and post office.
During the late 19th century, Messrs J A Devenish & Co Ltd took ownership of the inn. On the morning of 26 September 1876, a fire broke out in the dining room and was discovered by a young girl who spotted smoke seeping out of an upstairs window as she walked past outside. She alerted the occupants and a party of willing helpers were soon able to extinguish the fire using an estimated 100 to 150 buckets of water sourced from the pump in the yard. The fire was concentrated around one of the two smaller windows in the room; its frame and the oak beam above it were badly charred, and part of a gaspipe was melted. £100 of damage was done but more so by water than the fire itself, and the landlady's furnishings were also ruined. The cause of the fire was never determined but the smell of smoke had been noticed a day or two before it was discovered. The Weymouth, Portland, and Dorchester Telegram reported: "The alarm was very great in Fortunes Well, as the hotel is so old that it was feared it would burn like a match; but the front of the window is of stone, and the wind blew rather fresh against the face of the house, so that burning embers were not carried across the road. Outwardly the only sign of disfigurement is the burnt out window; but inside the room is wrecked."
The inn underwent major alteration, enlargement, partial rebuilding and renovation work in 1881-82. Devenish had the architects Messrs Crickmay & Son of Weymouth draw up plans in May 1881 and builder Mr. John Patten of Portland signed as the contractor in July 1881. Completed in early 1882, the work included lowering the level of the ground floor by about two feet, extending the building at the back, and providing new windows, chimneys and drains. The building adjoining the east side of the main building was pulled down and any suitable stonework was reused in the enlargement and rebuilding work. The interior was substantially altered too and included the addition of new fittings, doors and flooring. At the time of its completion, the ground floor contained the bar and parlor, along with the kitchen, scullery, coal store and larder in the new extension at the back. The first floor held the dining room, a W.C., and one bedroom, the latter added as part of the new back extension, and the second (attic) floor was divided into four bedrooms. The yard at the back of the building had a W.C. and urinal.
Further alterations were carried out in c. 1903, again by Mr. Patten, which primarily involved enlarging the bar by extending the building over part of the adjoining yard. That September, the meat dish used by King George III on his visits to the inn was sold to a customer for £300 for his private collection. The dish, made from china, was described by the Southern Times as having a "curious shape" and was "over a yard long and standing on six legs". It was embellished with the portraits of different royalties.
In 1986, Gibbs Mew Plc bought the Royal Portland Arms from Devenish Weymouth Brewery Ltd as part of a £1.5 million deal which saw the Wiltshire firm acquire 13 Devenish-owned establishments in the Weymouth and Portland area. In turn, Gibbs Mew was acquired by Enterprise Inns Plc in 1998. In January 2006, the pub temporarily closed when the owners decided to put it on the market. Gary Nash, who had been the landlord since 2000, made an offer to purchase the pub but was ultimately deterred by the costs of refurbishing the "semi-derelict listed building" on top of the asking price. It was sold to an individual proprietor in June 2006 for £210,000 and reopened under new management soon after.
The pub has been featured in both the Good Pub Guide and CAMRA's Good Beer Guide in recent years. In the 2014 edition of the Good Pub Guide, it is described as "friendly, homely and unfussy" with "well kept, quickly changing ales, local ciders, bar snacks [and] live music". The pub also appeared in the 2018 film Happy New Year, Colin Burstead.
Architecture
The Royal Portland Arms is built of Portland stone and has slate roofs. The façade is symmetrical in design. There are three dormer windows at attic level, two sash windows with an oriel window in the centre on the first floor, and two large square windows on the ground floor. There are two stone steps leading up to the main entrance. At the back of the building are two deep-gabled wings.
References
The following is an A-Z list of references for this page.
1) Dorset Echo - Time at the bar at oldest island pub - 31 January 2006 - website page
2) Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club - Proceedings - Volume 37 - Old Portland - Rev. Herbert Pentin, M.A. - 1916 - page 246
3) Historic England - The National Heritage List for England - Royal Portland Arms - website page
4) HM Land Registry - Title register for 40 Fortuneswell, Portland, DT5 1LZ - DT143691
5) J. G. Harrod & Co.'s Postal and Commercial Directory of Dorset and Wiltshire - 1865
6) Royal Portland Arms - Crickmay and Son drawings, plans, specifications and memorandum of agreement - 1881 - (held in the archives of the Dorset History Centre under D-CMY/51, D-CMY/629)
7) The British Newspaper Archive - various contemporary newspaper articles including in the Southern Times - website page
8) The Good Pub Guide 2014 - Alisdair Aird and Fiona Stapley (editors) - Ebury Press - 2013 - page 309 - ISBN: 978-0091951818 - book
9) The National Standard of Literature, Science, Music, Theatricals and the Fine Arts - Entertaining ancedotes of the Portlanders - Volume 1 - 1833 - page 204
10) The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge - A week in the Isle of Portland in 1837 - anonymous correspondent - 17 February 1838 - page 58
History
The Royal Portland Arms dates to the 18th century and originally traded under the name Portland Arms Inn or Hotel. The inn was patronised by King George III and his suite on many of his summer family holidays to Weymouth between 1789 and 1805. On his excursions to Portland, the King enjoyed dishes of Portland mutton, wheatears and other local delicacies, and was particularly enthralled with the puddings made by the landlady, Mrs Gibbs, so much so that he christened it the "Royal Pudding" and had it advertised in the Dorset County Chronicle. In a feature on Portland which mentioned the King's visits to the inn, the National Standard wrote in 1833: "The landlady's art of cooking was of a very superior cast, and never failed to afford the highest satisfaction. It is positively stated that, on one occasion, his majesty and suite, having found the taste of the pudding so exquisite, actually remained at table until a second edition of it was produced, for which they had all reserved a corner." In c. 1852, the "Royal" was added to the inn's name in honour of its connection to the King.
As one of the principal hospitality establishments on the island, the Royal Portland Arms was regularly used as a meeting place and venue throughout the 19th century, as well as for public auctions and inquests. Two notable celebratory dinners held there were for the opening of the Merchants' Railway in 1826 and the laying of the foundation stone of the first Ferry Bridge in 1837. In 1833, it was described as "one of the best houses of entertainment on the island" and in 1837, a writer for the Penny Magazine stayed there during a visit to the island and called it "one of those retired country inns, where visitors are treated with a homely but warm-hearted attention, which places them almost on the footing of friends". The inn was also home to the Fortuneswell post office for a number of years during the mid-19th century. J. G. Harrod & Co.'s Postal and Commercial Directory of Dorset and Wiltshire for 1865 listed it as a family and commercial hotel, posting establishment and post office.
During the late 19th century, Messrs J A Devenish & Co Ltd took ownership of the inn. On the morning of 26 September 1876, a fire broke out in the dining room and was discovered by a young girl who spotted smoke seeping out of an upstairs window as she walked past outside. She alerted the occupants and a party of willing helpers were soon able to extinguish the fire using an estimated 100 to 150 buckets of water sourced from the pump in the yard. The fire was concentrated around one of the two smaller windows in the room; its frame and the oak beam above it were badly charred, and part of a gaspipe was melted. £100 of damage was done but more so by water than the fire itself, and the landlady's furnishings were also ruined. The cause of the fire was never determined but the smell of smoke had been noticed a day or two before it was discovered. The Weymouth, Portland, and Dorchester Telegram reported: "The alarm was very great in Fortunes Well, as the hotel is so old that it was feared it would burn like a match; but the front of the window is of stone, and the wind blew rather fresh against the face of the house, so that burning embers were not carried across the road. Outwardly the only sign of disfigurement is the burnt out window; but inside the room is wrecked."
The inn underwent major alteration, enlargement, partial rebuilding and renovation work in 1881-82. Devenish had the architects Messrs Crickmay & Son of Weymouth draw up plans in May 1881 and builder Mr. John Patten of Portland signed as the contractor in July 1881. Completed in early 1882, the work included lowering the level of the ground floor by about two feet, extending the building at the back, and providing new windows, chimneys and drains. The building adjoining the east side of the main building was pulled down and any suitable stonework was reused in the enlargement and rebuilding work. The interior was substantially altered too and included the addition of new fittings, doors and flooring. At the time of its completion, the ground floor contained the bar and parlor, along with the kitchen, scullery, coal store and larder in the new extension at the back. The first floor held the dining room, a W.C., and one bedroom, the latter added as part of the new back extension, and the second (attic) floor was divided into four bedrooms. The yard at the back of the building had a W.C. and urinal.
Further alterations were carried out in c. 1903, again by Mr. Patten, which primarily involved enlarging the bar by extending the building over part of the adjoining yard. That September, the meat dish used by King George III on his visits to the inn was sold to a customer for £300 for his private collection. The dish, made from china, was described by the Southern Times as having a "curious shape" and was "over a yard long and standing on six legs". It was embellished with the portraits of different royalties.
In 1986, Gibbs Mew Plc bought the Royal Portland Arms from Devenish Weymouth Brewery Ltd as part of a £1.5 million deal which saw the Wiltshire firm acquire 13 Devenish-owned establishments in the Weymouth and Portland area. In turn, Gibbs Mew was acquired by Enterprise Inns Plc in 1998. In January 2006, the pub temporarily closed when the owners decided to put it on the market. Gary Nash, who had been the landlord since 2000, made an offer to purchase the pub but was ultimately deterred by the costs of refurbishing the "semi-derelict listed building" on top of the asking price. It was sold to an individual proprietor in June 2006 for £210,000 and reopened under new management soon after.
The pub has been featured in both the Good Pub Guide and CAMRA's Good Beer Guide in recent years. In the 2014 edition of the Good Pub Guide, it is described as "friendly, homely and unfussy" with "well kept, quickly changing ales, local ciders, bar snacks [and] live music". The pub also appeared in the 2018 film Happy New Year, Colin Burstead.
Architecture
The Royal Portland Arms is built of Portland stone and has slate roofs. The façade is symmetrical in design. There are three dormer windows at attic level, two sash windows with an oriel window in the centre on the first floor, and two large square windows on the ground floor. There are two stone steps leading up to the main entrance. At the back of the building are two deep-gabled wings.
References
The following is an A-Z list of references for this page.
1) Dorset Echo - Time at the bar at oldest island pub - 31 January 2006 - website page
2) Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club - Proceedings - Volume 37 - Old Portland - Rev. Herbert Pentin, M.A. - 1916 - page 246
3) Historic England - The National Heritage List for England - Royal Portland Arms - website page
4) HM Land Registry - Title register for 40 Fortuneswell, Portland, DT5 1LZ - DT143691
5) J. G. Harrod & Co.'s Postal and Commercial Directory of Dorset and Wiltshire - 1865
6) Royal Portland Arms - Crickmay and Son drawings, plans, specifications and memorandum of agreement - 1881 - (held in the archives of the Dorset History Centre under D-CMY/51, D-CMY/629)
7) The British Newspaper Archive - various contemporary newspaper articles including in the Southern Times - website page
8) The Good Pub Guide 2014 - Alisdair Aird and Fiona Stapley (editors) - Ebury Press - 2013 - page 309 - ISBN: 978-0091951818 - book
9) The National Standard of Literature, Science, Music, Theatricals and the Fine Arts - Entertaining ancedotes of the Portlanders - Volume 1 - 1833 - page 204
10) The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge - A week in the Isle of Portland in 1837 - anonymous correspondent - 17 February 1838 - page 58
Gallery
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