57 Holywell Street is a seventeenth-century house which has been altered. It is owned by Merton College. (Because the house next door to the west, No. 56, has a door which faces on to Bath Place, in some directories this building is numbered 56 instead of 57.)
It is a Grade II Listed Building (1047239), with the following description:
No 57 SP 5106 NE 6/178 12.1.54. II GV 2.
House. RCHM 227. C17 but altered. Three-storeyed stuccoed timber-framing with cellars, an overhang at the lst floor and a large central gable with a moulded pediment and a Welsh slate roof. The ground floor has two casement windows in modern frames bay windows with modern three-light casements in moulded wood frames, that in the lst floor having a keystoned wood entablature.
This house was the William IV pub from c.1830 to c.1919.
Drawing by H. Wilkinson Moore of the William IV pub in 1880
57 Holywell Street in the censuses
1841
The 1841 census for Holywell does not give house numbers, but it is possible to deduce where people listed that year lived by examining directory entries between 1839 and 1842 and later censuses
William Denyer (35), a saddler & beer retailer, lived here at the William IV pub with his wife Susannah (35).
Margaret Mallam, laundress, is listed in Holywell Street, and probably lived here (see 1851 below).
1851
William Denyer (43), now described as a master saddler & publican, still lived here with his wife Susannah (48).
Margaret Mallam (48), a single laundress, was listed as the head of the household at No. 58, but it seems more likely that her household should have been listed as 57a. She lived here with her brother Thomas Mallam (50), a shoemaker. Both were unmarried, and they had a lodger.
1861
Manasseh Rhodes (32), a farrier & publican, lived here with his wife Ann (25) and sons William (7) and Harry (4).
1871
Edward Davies (43), a groom & publican, lived here at the pub (which is wrongly numbered 58 in the census) with his wife Louie and their children Elizabeth (12), Edwin (10), Jesse (8), Mary (6), and Albert (3). They had one servant.
1881
Lydia Alexander (30) was the innkeeper here. She is described both as the head of the household and as being married, and lived here with her children Lizzie (12), Ernest (9), and Alice (8).
1891
Isaac Luker (38), a compositor, lived here at the William IV pub with his wife Elizabeth Jane Luker (36) and their children Ethel (15), who was a dressmaker, Alice (12), Minnie (10), Walter (7), and Violet (1). His wife died here at the age of 47 on 21 October 1900.
1901
Isaac Luker (50), now a widower and described as a publican and compositor, still lived here with his children Minnie (20), who was a barmaid, Walter (18), who was a college servant, and Violet (11).
1911
Isaac Luker (57) continued to live here with his son Cyril (14), who was still at school.
1921
The boarding-house keeper Violet Raynham (44), whose husband was away working in London, lived here with her three children and just one boarder (a student at Wadham College) .
1939 Register
Only the office cleaner Mrs Rachel A. Cooper is listed.
Occupants of 57 Holywell Street listed in directories etc. |
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1772 |
Mr Walker |
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1839–1915 |
William the Fourth Public House Some landlords: |
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1921 |
George Raynham |
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1926–1936 |
Rowland Charles Fogden |
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1938 |
Percival C. Abbs |
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1940–1956 |
Mrs R. A. Cooper |
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1958–1960 |
Anthony Flynn |
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1962 |
No listing |
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1964 |
John R. Howe |
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1966–1967 |
Richard Mulgan |
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1970 |
Thomas E. Mswaka |
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1972–1976 |
No listing |
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Today |
Merton College annexe |
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