Barrons

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Amongst different functions 2 Holyrood Street has served, it was once a Temperance Hotel. It was opened in 1879 by William Cornelius and previously it had been a pub called The British Workman.

The Temperance Hotel would have provided the amenities of a standard hotel with meals and accommodation but without alcohol.

The main aims of the Temperance movement, founded in the 1830s, was to encourage a total abstinence from alcohol and to provide alternative social and cultural environments for people to enjoy and relax in.

The movement of large numbers of people to towns during the Industrial Revolution had made clear how much working people relied on alcohol and drinking establishments for relaxation, with the accompanying issues of increased drunkenness, violence and poverty.

The Temperance Movement was very popular during the Victorian era both in the UK and worldwide. Almost every town had a Temperance Hall and Hotel providing reading rooms, tea and coffee rooms and space where townspeople and visitors could hold meetings and club events in a relaxed atmosphere.

The building itself is owned by the Richardson family who owned a wholesale fruit and vegetable business established in 1927. For a time Gales, the jewellers, had a shop in the premises. The present business, Barrons, a men’s outdoor clothing shop was established by John Barron in 1983, who had previously been working on a farm in Norfolk. The business will have been in existence for 40 years in 2023.