Royal Oak Caves – Nottingham Historical & Archaeological Society

BridleSmith Gate

The Royal Oak once stood on the corner of Broad Marsh and Sherwood Place. The inn held a license which dated back to 1445. The yard at the rear of the inn gave access to two caves below Drury Hill. The caves were originally part of the property above the cliff. In 1824 the caves were leased to the Royal Oak by the owner Francis Gawthern. Nineteen years later the caves, along with the ground immediately to the south of them were sold to the owner of the Royal Oak.

By 1947, the inn was owned by a small company called the Nottingham Brewery Company. Three of their public houses had been closed the previous year as they were in slum clearance areas.In March 1947 an application was made for the renewal of the Royal Oak’s license. The authorities claimed that there were twelve public houses within 200 yards (183 metre) of the Royal Oak and that it was located inside a slum clearance area. The city’s engineering department submitted that although the building itself was sound, its layout was obsolete.A plan was put forward to refurbish the building at a cost of £1500. However the license application was turned down and the inn closed. Almost immediately after the closure, the site was leased for use as a warehouse and garage. The change of usage required planning permission from the council. Permission was granted for the limited period as the there was an intention to redevelop the area. The planning permission was renewed several times until the late 1960’s when site was finally demolished along with the other buildings in the area in preparation for the building of the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre.

The two caves were largely filled with concrete when the Broadmarsh shopping centre was built. The pictures below show how little of these caves remain. In places they are only just wide enough to walk through. When the Society started excavating these caves, they were so full of rubble that it was only just possible to crawl through them