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The King's Arms | |
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The King's Arms on the corner of Parks Road (left) and Holywell Street (right) | |
General information | |
Address | 40 Holywell Street, Oxford, OX1 3SP, England |
Coordinates | 51°45′18″N1°15′16″W / 51.755°N 1.2544°W |
Opened | 18 September 1607 |
Owner | Wadham College, Oxford / Young's Brewery |
Website | |
kingsarmsoxford.co.uk |
The King's Arms (colloquially known as the KA) [1] is one of the main student pubs in Oxford, England. [2] It claims to be the oldest pub in Oxford. [3]
The King's Arms pub is in a prominent position on the corner of Parks Road and Holywell Street, opposite the New Bodleian Library building. Also nearby are Broad Street and the Clarendon Building, part of Oxford University. A local myth has it that the KA has the highest IQ per square foot of any pub or bar in the world. [3] The pub is owned by Wadham College, which is located just to the north.
The site was originally occupied by buildings erected by Augustinian friars in 1268. [4] After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540, the land passed to the City of Oxford.
The lease book of Oxford Council in 1607 stated "Thomas Franklyn has licence to set up an inn with the sign of the King's Arms". [5] Franklyn's choice of the name refers to King James I (reigned 1603–1625), who was involved with Wadham College, immediately to the north. It opened on 18 September 1607. [4]
In the 17th century, the King's Arms was a popular location for plays. [4] In the early 18th century, the south side and rear were rebuilt. The west frontage was added in the late 18th century. The King's Arms was variously a coaching inn (by 1771) and a hotel during its history.
Graham Greene, in his interviews with biographer Norman Sherry, identified the King's Arms as the pub where he and Kim Philby, among other intelligence officers, shared drinks around 1944. Greene was known to have been a practical joker in the comfortable confines of the pub as per Philby's recollections. It was around this time Philby wanted to promote Greene, who rejected promotion and resigned. [6]
It was said[ according to whom? ] that some dons held tutorials in the back bar as late as the 1970s. As late as 1973, women were not allowed in the back bar, also known as the "Don's Bar". [7] Before Wadham College reclaimed upper stories of the building in the 1960s, the King's Arms had been an hotel, once popular with commercial travellers.
Until 1973, the pub's back bar, known as The Don's Bar, was not open to women, the last such bar in Oxford. [5] There was a fire in that year, started by an electrical fault in the Don's Bar, not as some would have it by radical feminists. [7] The room now known as The Office was in fact the landlord's office until 1992, when it was converted into extra bar space.
A pub is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private houses from those open to the public as alehouses, taverns and inns. Today, there is no strict definition, but the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) states a pub has four characteristics:
Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham, according to the will of her late husband Nicholas Wadham, a member of an ancient Devon and Somerset family.
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The Royal Pavilion Tavern, commonly known as the Pavilion Tavern or Pav Tav and since February 2022 as The Fitz Regent, is a pub in the centre of Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Converted from a house into the Royal Pavilion Hotel in the early 19th century, its original role soon changed from a hotel to a pub, in which guise it remained until its closure in September 2019. It reopened under its new name, but still in the ownership of the Mitchells & Butlers chain, on 13 February 2022. The building was also used as a court for several years early in its history, and prominent local architect Amon Henry Wilds was responsible for its redesign as a hotel and inn. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance, and it stands within a conservation area.
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