New Inn Hotel, Gloucester

The New Inn originated in about 1350 as a pilgrims' inn for the accommodation of visitors to the shrine of Edward II in St Peter's Abbey (now the Cathedral). After falling into disrepair, the inn was rebuilt by John Twining in 1455 and came to be recognised as the largest hostelry in the country. Following the death of Edward VI in 1553, an attempt was made to keep the English throne in Protestant hands. Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen at the New Inn and at two other places in England, but there is no historical evidence to support the claim that she was actually staying at the inn at the time. Sadly Jane's reign lasted only seventeen days before Catholic Mary Tudor deposed her. Just two years later 'Bloody' Queen Mary was to order the Bishop of Gloucester to be burnt at the stake. In Elizabethan times the Inn's main courtyard, surrounded by oak galleries draped with foliage, was used by minstrels and players, and it is quite possible that William Shakespeare appeared here with the Lord Chamberlain's Men. The courtyard still occasionally hosts travelling theatre companies, and one was filmed here in 2003 for Michael Wood's "In Search of Shakespeare" series for BBC TV. In the mid-1950s Berni Inns purchased the Inn and converted non-residential rooms on the ground floor and first floors to thirteen bars