The Assembly Rooms, Epsom, Surrey UK
Posted by: AngelPick
N 51° 19.965 W 000° 16.200
30U E 690173 N 5690367
A nice simple pub sign outside a pub with some history.
Waymark Code: WMEKDT
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/09/2012
Views: 3
A simple black and gold sign with a fascinating history behind the building it hangs from.
Built in the late 17th century, when Epsom developed into a leading health spa, the Assembly Rooms housed a draper's shop and building society for most of the 20th century.
Built on the site of the famous Epsom Spa in the late 17th century, The Assembly Rooms originally housed a tavern, a coffee shop, a drapers shop, gambling facilities in the Great Chamber on the ground floor room of the rear range, dancing facilities in the Long Room above the Great Chamber and a bowling green to the rear.
It is now a pub bearing its original name which was opened on: 22 Apr 2002.
The Bourne Hall Museum holds a sizeable collection of bottles, tankards and pipes which were found in a pit in the grounds. This collection of bottles and tankards dates to around 1656 and are among the evidence from this renowned social hub.
The Assembly Rooms building is important as the earliest known surviving building of this type in England.
“1692 two London goldsmiths acquired the bowling green site on the corner of South Street and the High Street, and erected premises known as the New Tavern and Assembly Rooms, subsequently Waterloo House. This provided facilities for dining, dancing, gambling and meeting people; there was also a coffeehouse opening onto the street, and in the gardens at the back was the bowling green and a cockpit. The bowling green and cockpit have long gone but the original building has been acquired by Wetherspoons and the name 'The Assembly Rooms' restored.”
For a well written history with plenty of pictures see this website
HERE where I took some of the text above from.