Market Square – Dough & Co / Curriers Arms, Market Square
The name is associated with a step in the processing of leather which would have taken place in nearby buildings. A Currier dressed and coloured tanned leather. It is thought to be the only pub with such a name.
Records show that the pub was already established by 1771. In the 19th century, it was owned by the Hawke’s Brewery and a plaque on the right-hand end can be seen with the letter “H”. Until the 1890’s, a shop premises, sometime antiques and then butcher (Oxbrow) was attached to the right-hand end. This was demolished in about 1898, to widen access to the upper part of Market Square, behind the Corn Exchange.
Following closure in 1902, it was bought by a group of local citizens who were interested in using the site for a memorial to Cecil Rhodes, but this scheme fell through and all that was completed was the old Drill Hall, to the left, now Pircio’s Restaurant. The premises became a YMCA and were later bought by Clement Joscelyne which owned the premises on the south side of Market square (where the Dog’s Head now stands) who used it as a store house and then as a showroom “the other place” until this closed in 2012. Since then, it has been a restaurant, Zizzi’s, and afterwards, a pizza outlet, Dough & Co.
Image taken by Chris Connell
