The Definitive Guide to the History of
Pubs and Beerhouses in Coventry

Drinking in an Old English Town

Golden Horse, 46 Smith Street

This pub opened on Thursday 5th May 1904 after a long battle by the Charringtons brewery to get the licence approved. Plans to open a pub named the Golden Horse in the newly built Smith Street began as early as September 1898, but it took several applications and over five years before the licence was finally granted on the 10th February 1904, on condition that Charringtons surrendered the licenses of the Golden Horse in Warwick Lane and the British Queen in St. John Street. In 1926 it was sold by Charringtons along with four houses: 48, 50, 52 and 54 Smith Street. The rent for the pub was £80 per annum, for two of the houses 9s 6d per week, and the other two houses 10s per week. In 1982 it was described as "a very ordinary, typical backstreet working class local but with a very pleasant atmosphere". The pub appears to have closed by c2017 and by the end of 2021 it had become the Royal Spice restaurant.

LICENSEES: 1905 - 1913 Joseph Charles Eggington 1919 - 1922 Christopher C. Eggington 1924 A. J. Chattaway 1926 - 1932 Mr W. J. R. Bryan 1933 - 1940 C. W. Bannister 1955 - 1957 Thomas Payne

OWNERS: to 1926 Charringtons