The New Inn, 16 Northgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 1SF, is a public house, hotel and restaurant that is Grade I listed by English Heritage and is the most complete surviving example of a medieval courtyard inn with galleries in Britain.[1] The announcement of Lady Jane Grey's succession to the British throne was made from the Inn gallery in 1553.[2][3]
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The Inn was built not long before 1455[4] by John Twyning, a monk, as a hostelry for the former Benedictine Abbey of St Peter. It is on the site of an earlier inn. After the dissolution of St Peter's the inn passed to the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester Cathedral and was leased to various inn holders until it was sold in 1858. Stories that the inn was built to provide lodgings for pilgrims to the tomb of King Edward II were first recorded in the eighteenth century and may be incorrect.[1]
In 1553, King Edward VI died and Lady Jane Grey was staying at The New Inn when the proclamation of her succession to the British throne was made[5] from the Inn gallery.[3]
Claims that William Shakespeare may have performed at the Inn with his company The Lord Chamberlain's Men, remain unproven, though it is known that the company did visit and perform in the city.[3]
The Inn is entered through a carriage way from Northgate Street, and is the most complete surviving example of a medieval courtyard inn with galleries in Britain.[1]
Close to the entrance to the Inn in Northgate Street lies New Inn Lane, which runs parallel to Eastgate Street and The Oxbode. Reportedly, it was originally called Pilgrims Lane.[6]
Today the Inn is a successful restaurant, pub and hotel, as well as being licenced to perform civil weddings. It was taken over by Mark and Samantha Cooke in 2010[7] and serves as a meeting place for CAMRA and a local branch of the Rotary Club.
The Inn is supposedly haunted with one unexplained event captured on CCTV in 2010.[8]