Pubs & Inns

Llanelli Old and New

The images in this section are taken mainly from the CdRom

Llanelli - Birth of a Town by William and Benita Rees

Inns & Public Houses

When the railway from Swansea came to Llanelli, Station Road was built. Bradbury Hall and its gardens, now the location of Stamps Wine Bar (formerly the Post Office), stood where Station Road begins. The station was built and hotels, inns and public houses sprang up close by. Old Lodge Ironworks was completed in 1852 and even more licensed premises appeared along Station Road.

The 1861 UK census shows the Whitehall Inn, the Temperance House and the Station Hotel on one side of Station Road, with the Apple Tree, the Melbourne Inn, the Oddfellows Inn, the Railway Inn, the New Inn, the Neptune, and the Sunderland Bridge, on the other.

As industrialisation of the town progressed so did the number of public houses increase to accommodate the thirsts of the workers. In the 10 years prior to 1871 more public houses had opened in Station Road, part of which had been renamed Salamanca Road, from Greenfields to the Whitehall Vaults and to the Vine Inn.

In 1872 there were six inns in Salamanca Road, The Waterloo, the Pemberton Arms, the Whitehall Vaults, the Rolling Mill and the Vine Inn. In Station Road there were eight inns, including the Station Hotel, the Apple Tree Inn, the Forester’s Arms, the Railway Station Tavern (re-named the Miramar), Oddfellows’ Inn, the Melbourne Inn, the Mariners Inn and the Railway Hotel.

Many of the establishments listed here have undergone name changes, in some cases several times, over the years. Some have closed and been converted into private houses, others have been demolished and have disappeared for ever. The list below is not definitive but it does give an indication of the wide variety of hostelries which were in or close to Llanelli.

Apple Tree, Station Road

Barbican, Stepney Street

Barnums (The Whitehall/Whitehall Vaults), Station Road

Beaufort Arms, Anne Street (was Wern Road in 1872)

Biddulph Arms, New Street, Morfa

Black Lion Inn, Market Street (see Dynefor Castle)

Blue Anchor, Pwll

Boars Head Inn, Swansea Road

Brecon Arms, Gilbert Road

Bres Arms, Murray Street

Bridge-end Inn, Glandafen Road (see Golfer's Inn)

Bucket & Spade, Cambrian Place, Seaside (see Cornish Arms, Seaside)