Inns of Devizes - edited from the Victoria County History of Wiltshire volume 10.

Nine Devizes innkeepers were licensed in 1600. In 1620 15 innholders or innkeepers, 13 alehouse keepers, and a taverner, all of Devizes or Southbroom, bound themselves in Lenten recognizances. If the earlier figure is complete, even for the hosts of the larger establishments, there must have been an enormous increase in taverns over a short period.

A reduction in the number by 12 in 1623 causes no surprise. In 1686 the inns of the town contained 97 beds, many fewer than Salisbury, Chippenham, or Marlborough could provide; even Warminster and Bradford could do better. On the other hand stabling was ampler in 1686 than that of any other Wiltshire town apart from Salisbury. In 1766 licensed premises in the borough and on the Green numbered 41, in 1818–19 30 within the borough in 1844 28 within the extended borough, in 1903 30, and in 1970 26. Several of the early inns belonged to the corporation either absolutely or in trust.

The first named inn, mentioned in 1514, was called 'Dokemannys'. It stood on the Green and does not recur. Next comes the Crown, which occurs in 1538–44. It seems to have continuously occupied the same site in St. John's Street until its closure in 1966. Its use in the 17th century by lodgers of good social standing suggests that it was then one of the best inns in the town.

There is record of six other 16th-century inns, four of which may be specially mentioned. The Hart, represented by no. 12 St. John's Street, is first mentioned in 1546, and under the successive names of the Boot, and the Wheatsheaf, and possibly the Rose can be traced to 1836. A Swan is first mentioned in 1563 and in 1580 stood in the New Port.

In 1668 there was a Black Swan, approachable from Short Street, near the butchers' shambles. It was still an inn in 1673 but closed soon after. It is probably the Swan of 1580. In 1693 no. 22 High Street, previously a private house, had become the Black Swan and so remained until 1732 or later. Its yard may have lain across the street, for in 1900 no. 6, on the east side, was still called 'Old Swan Yard'. By 1750 the building had become a private house, but by 1766 there was once again a Black Swan. This may have been the present one, which is dated 1737, was partly burnt in 1798, and has stood in the Market Place since at least 1778.

A White Swan, now represented by no. 39 Market Place, existed in 1676–7, and perhaps changed prefixes with the Black Swan when that inn set up in High Street. In 1758 it was made a dining-place for militia officers. It was still an inn in 1775, was a private house in 1791, and an inn again from 1808 to 1864, when it became the Wilts and Dorset Bank. Thomas Pierce, the metheglin-maker, once occupied the Swan and was presumably the descendant of John Pierce, its licensee in 1600, and Richard Pierce, the Royalist mayor, its owner in 1649. The inn was probably the Black Swan in 1668. An Angel, in the New Port, existed in 1596. It is often referred to afterwards, for out of it a rent was payable to the poor. It has been claimed that it stood in the Market Place on a site later occupied by Ansties' offices, and at an uncertain date to have been renamed the White Lion.

The Bear, now and for long the chief inn, is first mentioned in 1600.) In 1678 it was called the Black Bear and in 1738 alternatively the Bear and Castle. It seems to have possessed ornamental grounds by 1664 and a bowling alley ten years before. s a staging point on the Bath road it became well known to the fashionable world and under its licensee George Whatley (d. 1767) was evidently well conducted. A near successor to Whatley was Thomas Lawrence, the painter's father, who became licensee in 1772 and remained until at least 1779, when he was replaced by William Halcombe (d. 1801), licensee of the King's Arms. During Lawrence's time Fanny Burney and David Garrick were lodgers and the young Thomas (1769–1830) entertained such visitors by reciting poetry and showing his precocious drawings. Halcombe maintained the standards, so that the inn could still be described in 1788 as 'remarkable' for its goodness. In his time 30 coaches a day halted in the yard. He may have been responsible for building new assembly rooms to the north of the inn where the Corn Exchange now stands. The likeness of a black bear, holding a bunch of grapes, reared upon two columns in the Market Place, was moved to the north entrance porch c. 1801, after when the prefix 'black' was dropped. The Archduke of Austria in 1786, George III and Queen Charlotte in 1789, and Queen Charlotte alone in 1817 all stopped at the inn. The Duchess of Kent and Princess Victoria did the same in 1830, and Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, visited it in 1893. The construction of the Corn Exchange and Station Road c. 1857 much reduced the size of the yard.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, especially before the Town Hall was remodelled and the Corn Exchange erected, the Bear was an administrative and social centre; the first board of Improvement Commissioners were required by statute to assemble there, and it was an appointed dining-place for militia officers. In 1828 a subscription reading room was established in it.

The northern half of the Bear was originally timber-framed and has an L-shaped plan, consisting of a front range and a long rear wing. The front range may once have had an open passage running through it. Its oldest visible features are two Tudor-arched stone fireplaces of a type which persisted from the late 16th to the mid 17th century. The gabled rear wing is likely to be of the latter period. The front range was remodelled and raised in height in the 18th century; its three-storeyed front is now stucco-faced and has sash windows and a columned porch. Other 18th-century alterations, perhaps Whatley's work, included a curved staircase with a Venetian window above it housed in a bowed projection facing the yard. Three stone Tuscan columns, each with a detached entablature, rise through two storeys of the rear wing and support the ceiling of what may originally have been an open first-floor gallery. The monumental character of the columns, incongruous in this position, suggests that they may have come from elsewhere; they appear to match those which formerly supported the Bear sign in the Market Place. Early in the 18th century the inn frontage was extended by the erection of a new south block. It originally had a flat two-storeyed front of five bays with a central pediment. Between c. 1804 and 1816 the front was faced with stone ashlar and given two-storeyed bay windows, fluted pilasters, and other embellishments; the wrought-iron verandah above the central doorway and double flight of steps may be of later date. The former assembly room, displaced by the Corn Exchange, appears to have been reconstructed in much its original form at the far end of the rear wing. The street front had a low ground floor with, above it, three tall sash windows set in arched recesses. The present assembly room has similar windows and an enriched plaster ceiling in the 'Adam' style.

The Elm Tree may possibly be the corner tenement, 'forynst an elme', mentioned in 1512. As the Salutation Inn it occurs from 1665–6 to 1681. It had acquired its present name by 1818. A tree which stood in front of it was removed in 1826.

The Black Horse occurs from 1657 to 1848. It then changed its name to the Wiltshire House and disappeared in the next year. It stood on the site of the Wiltshire Savings Bank, Long Street, and in the late 18th century was occasionally the meeting place of the licensing justices.

There was a Bull in 1663. It may be identifiable with the Bull's Head in the Little Brittox, recorded from 1740 to 1821 or later, whose sign is said to have been painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence in childhood. The Castle, New Park Street, still open, was built soon after 1768 and was inviting custom in its 'genteely furnished' state in 1770. In the later 18th century it was the meeting-place of the Improvement Commissioners and of local insurance societies and in 1836 it was a posting house, fair proof of its size and importance. The Curriers' Arms formed part of the Bridewell Street brewery. It was the Chartists' headquarters in 1839. Between 1841 and 1845 it became the Duke of Wellington and so survived until 1865. The Hare and Hounds in the street of that name, has existed since 1766. The King's Arms (Northgate House) is first mentioned in 1766 - the approximate date of all but the western block, which is a little later, became soon after a coaching house with 40 beds, garden, and bowling green, the scene of aristocratic balls. Halcombe was the landlord in the early 1770s until he left it for the Bear. The inn had closed by 1823. The Leg of Mutton, Sidmouth Street, is named from 1739 to 1830. It seems likely that it became the Odd Fellows or Odd Fellows Arms in or before 1844. That inn changed its name to the Unicorn in 1866, was still open in 1966, but had closed by 1970. Another Unicorn existed in 1687. A Pelican (not the present one) was the headquarters of the royal troops during Monmouth's rebellion. This still existed in 1737– 8.

The Queen's Head has stood at the foot of Dunkirk Hill since 1769. The building of chequered brickwork with stone dressings and a pedimented Tuscan porch may be of that period; a two-storeyed bay window was added later.

The Three Crowns, Maryport Street, probably a 17th century building, has existed since 1849. When it was put up for sale in 1933 by J. F. Phipp, whose family had owned it since 1862, it was said to be the only free house in town.

The White Bear, Monday Market Street, a building of similar if not earlier date, has existed since 1673. The timber-framed building on a corner site, which it still occupies, probably dates from the earlier 17th century.