The Hat and Beaver Pub

The Hat and Beaver Pub used to stand on Highcross Street, the original centre of Leicester. Although the building remains, the pub closed in 2007.

Originally picked for the Semper Eadem project (a collaboration between EMOHA and photographer Maxine Beuret) because the interior hadn't changed for several decades, the Hat and Beaver didn't make it into the final exhibition because it had closed and was no longer available for the public to see.

In this slideshow, the last landlord of the Hat and Beaver, Justin Osborne, talks about the building and its interior in 2006. The unusual name comes about because, apparently, the original licensee traded in hat making. Beaver felt hats were popular into the 19th century and the name 'Beaver' was applied to someone who made the felt. The pub was a Georgian inn but has become one of the latest of several local city pubs to disappear, going the way of names that were with us up to the late 1990s - the Haunch of Venison, the Spread Eagle, the Angel, the Nag's Head etc.

Last updated: 06/06/2018
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