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Date of photo: 2011	Photo © Jo' Turner
The WIllow Pattern Inn was situated at 30 Sincil Street. This pub was present by 1841 and was previously known as The Fishmongers Arms. It closed in 1965.
Shown on the Padley’s 1842 map it is probably one of the 63 houses built on Elder Lane between 1817 and 1826. It changed to Sincil Street about 1830 (I can’t find Elder or Sincil in 1828 & 1835 directories). It was built as a dram shop (18th Century term for a place that sold gin by the spoonful) with house above for Matthew Cockerill, architects Bellamy and Hardy. I’m told that 1843-1869 it was a beer house called Fishmongers Arms with Joseph Islip landlord from 1842 and Elizabeth Islip is listed in Pigot’s for 1841. By 1871 it was called the ‘Old Willow Pattern’ and in 1877 to 1965 ‘Willow Pattern Hotel’. In 1925 it was Ind Coope Brewery. Other directory entries include; 1856-1868 Joseph Islip (Fishmongers’ Arms in 1861 & 1868); 1870-1875 Richard Hartley, victualler; 1885-1909 Miss Louise Pye; 1913-1919 George Edwin Lilburn; 1965 Willow Pattern P.H. In 1975 it was Masons fruiterers. 1995 to 2001 it was the registered office of Anglo-Continental Associates Ltd. 2000 to 2006 it was Amberley florists and Belgian chocolate shop and then 2007 Lillies Florists and Belgian chocolate shop. By May 2009 it was empty and looks to have remained so up to the refurbishment around 2017. From the 1990s many if not most of the properties on Sincil Street were purchased by Lincolnshire Co-op who in 2016-2019 carried out a £70m redevelopment of the area that included refurbishment of No.30. It is now (2022) a total of 1,935 sq ft with 760 sq ft retail space currently used by JoJo Maman Bébé children’s clothing store.
Steve Turner (January 2022)
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