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Picture source: Bob Bates

The Haymarket Tavern was situated on The Strand. There has been a pub on this site since 1811. Originally a grand Victorian building boasting a stable block, it was called The Yeomans Inn before changing its name to The Haymarket Tavern in 1865. In 1878 it was registered as a fully licensed house. Owned by Coopers Brewery up until WW2 when it suffered heavy bomb damage. It was rebuilt in 1965 and opened as a Watneys Brewery house, it changed its name to Limelight in 1983, closing for good in 1988. In August 1892 the landlord was fined £1 for being drunk in charge of a horse and carriage and for assaulting a policeman. In the early 1970s it was the first pub in Southampton to employ topless barmaids.

I worked at the Haymarket Tavern in 1976, when Mike and Peggy ran it.  I was their Australian barman.  They used to call me Wombat.  Loved the job,  met lots of interesting people.

David Renton (December 2019)

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