Blake was a Gosport brewer who started with a brewery in South Street Gosport using the Royal Oak public house, next door to the brewery. Between 1810 and 1826 three of his five sons became brewers, and ‘Blake and Son’ existed by 1847. References to this Brewery can still be found on a few surviving Gosport Pubs, including The Britannia Pub in Forton Road (above), The Royal Oak on the corner of Avery Lane, The King’s Head in Brockhurst Road and a single window with a ‘Blake’s Stout’ advertisement which survived the original redevelopment of The Wiltshire Lamb at Bury Cross, yet has now been removed. All of these pubs are now closed and have been converted into flats.
Interestingly, looking at the façades of three of these pubs we see that they display images related to the pubs’ names:
‘The Britannia’s displays representations of Britannia’s cape and shield,
‘The Royal Oak’, acorns denoting the oak tree in which Charles II hid from the Parliamentarians, it also has some little flower motifs on the underside of the façade, these appear to cover the bolts that hold the horizontal tiles in place.
‘The Kings Head’, the oak leaves that can be seen on the Coat of Arms of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Unfortunately most of the façade on this building has been covered by the proprietor’s corporate signage.
Two of the former Blakes pubs that are still in business are The Village Home in Alverstoke village,
…and The, multiple award winning, Junction Tavern in Leesland Road standing beside what was once the railway to Fareham. A three story grade II listed Victorian building sporting some of the original tiles. A must for real ale lovers!
My thanks go to Philip Eley for his help with rebuilding this page.
Original page created by David Moore.