Yorkshire Stingo facts for kids
The Yorkshire Stingo was a famous old pub in Marylebone, London. It was around from the 1700s until the mid-1900s. People from Yorkshire living in London used to meet there every May. They would gather for three days, drinking strong ale and playing games. In 1808, over 20,000 people came together there. They enjoyed strong beer and played traditional Yorkshire sports. The word "Stingo" was a popular slang term in the 1700s for strong or old beer. It might have come from the sharp taste of a well-aged drink.
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The Yorkshire Stingo: A Historic London Pub
The pub was an important landmark just outside Central London. It was located on the south side of Marylebone Road. When it was first built, this area was countryside. Later, the New Road was built nearby. The pub added a bowling green and pleasure gardens in the 1700s. To enter, you had to pay a small fee. This fee could be used to buy drinks or food inside. This helped stop people without money from just hanging out there.
Helping the Community
In 1786, a group called the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor used the Stingo. They used it as a place to give out alms (help or charity) to people in need.
New Ways to Travel
The Yorkshire Stingo was connected to important changes in London's travel and transport. In July 1801, the Paddington branch of the Grand Union Canal opened. A parade with a band walked from Paddington Basin to the Stingo for a big dinner. In 1829, George Shillibeer started London's first omnibus service from the Stingo. An omnibus was like an early public bus pulled by horses. It travelled from the pub all the way to the Bank of England. A nearby street, Shillibeer Place, is named after him.
Amazing Balloon Flights
In the 1830s, the Stingo's pleasure gardens were a popular spot for watching hot air balloons take off. Many people gathered to see these amazing flights. On May 17, 1837, a famous balloonist named Margaret Graham launched her balloon from there. Three months later, on August 14, another balloon launched from the Stingo. It was part of a show to have three hot air balloons flying over London at the same time. The other two balloons launched from different places in London. The balloonist from the Stingo was Mr. H. Green. When his balloon reached about 60 meters (200 feet) high, he dropped a cat in a basket with a small parachute. The cat landed safely!
Early Music Hall
The Yorkshire Stingo was one of the first places to use the term "music hall". Music halls were places where people watched different kinds of shows. These shows included singing, dancing, and comedy. The music hall at the Stingo opened on August 24, 1835. It was called the Apollo Saloon and was located behind the pub. In December of the next year, the audience had a close call. There was a gas explosion on the stage, but luckily, no one was seriously hurt.
Public Baths and Washhouses
In 1847, a group called the Health of Towns Commissioners looked at the empty pleasure gardens. They decided it was a good place to build public baths and washhouses for working people in Marylebone. These public baths and washhouses opened in December 1849. The project cost a lot of money, about £20,000. At the time, it was the biggest building of its kind in London. It had 107 baths, plus showers and steam baths. There were also laundry facilities and two large swimming pools. The facilities were separated for "first class" and "second class" users.
Changes to the Area
Stingo Lane was a narrow street that led from Marylebone Road to Crawford Street. This area was cleared in 1872. The street was renamed Seymour Place. By 1875, a police court was built on part of the site.
The Stingo Brewery
Behind the pub was the Yorkshire Stingo Brewery. This is where they made beer. It got its water from a deep well nearby. In 1909, a group called the Church Army bought the Brewery. They turned it into workshops, a home for young people who had made mistakes for the first time, and a place to help people find work. It also had a chapel for religious services.
The End of an Era
After World War II, the pub became a popular meeting place for London's top lawyers. This was because the main court in the city was being rebuilt after war damage. So, court sessions were held temporarily at the Marylebone County Court next door. The Yorkshire Stingo pub closed on July 16, 1964. Later that year, the 150-year-old building was torn down. This made way for widening the road for the Marylebone Flyover.
There was once a toll booth near the Yorkshire Stingo. A toll booth was a place where you paid money to use the road.
Thomas Paine's Amazing Iron Bridge
In 1790, the Yorkshire Stingo was the temporary home for a very special bridge. It was the second cast iron bridge ever built! (The first was The Iron Bridge in England). This amazing bridge was designed by Thomas Paine. He is famous for writing a revolutionary book called Rights of Man. Paine had tried to get people in Philadelphia, USA, and Paris, France, interested in his bridge design. He got a patent (a special right to his invention) for it in 1788. A company called Walkers, which had an iron factory, agreed to build it. Paine once joked that "Nothing in the world is as fine as my bridge, except a woman."
The bridge was originally designed to be about 76 meters (250 feet) long. It was meant to cross the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. But the one built at the Stingo was smaller, about 27 meters (90 feet) long. Paine talked about his bridge with important people like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. He hoped his iron bridge could be a model for bridges across the River Thames in London and the River Seine in Paris. Paine watched over the building of the bridge at the factory and its setup at the Yorkshire Stingo. It weighed three tons and could hold six tons of weight. The project eventually had to be stopped because of money problems. Parts of this bridge were later used in a bridge over the River Wear in Sunderland. William Yates, who was Paine's foreman, later worked on the Wear bridge and then the Southwark Bridge in London. Paine later joked that the French revolution and other events pulled him away from building more bridges.
