Union Hotel, Longton

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Union Hotel, Longton
to.. Stevens Solicitors

The Georgian style Union Hotel occupied a central and busy position as a posting inn at Longton's second market-square.
The hotel stood just behind Longton Court House, it was also the starting point of an omnibus service which ran to Hanley, Burslem and Stoke.

The Union Hotel
Corner of Uttoxeter Road (originally High Street) and Commerce Street
Photo: Aug 2000

In 1851 Charles Lear was the proprietor of the posting inn - "Union Inn and Commercial Hotel (posting), High Street"

The sign of the Union Hotel is still present in the wall today (2009)

The red cross (now painted black) was the trade mark of Joule's brewery of Stone

Stevens Solicitors - Union House
'Criminal Defence Specialists'
photo: Mar 2009

The imposing main entrance on Uttoxeter Road still maintains the
name "Union Hotel", the Joules Brewery cross and the original lamp over the door

View from Commerce Street
the green area to the left of the photo is the corner of the location
of Longton Court House (the old Town Hall)

the red square is Longton's second market-square (Union Square)
the purple square is the Union Hotel
the blue building was Longton Court House (now a small public garden)

2009 - MS Live Earth view of Union Square
the garden just to the side of the Union Hotel was the site of the Court House (Longton's first Town Hall)

Longton Court House (previously Town Hall), Commerce Street c.1875

Longton's first town hall was built in 1844 on land in front of the Union Hotel, at the junction of Market Street and Commerce Street.

This was originally 'a handsome brick structure supported by an arched basement'.
In 1856 the ground floor arches were filled in and the walls faced with stucco when the building was converted into a court house.
The meetings of the Longton Borough council were held in this town hall.

"The Union Market, at the top of Market street, is now disused, though it is a large open piece of ground, which was given to the town, in 1794, by the devisees of John Turner, Esq., and has a large building called the Union Market Hall, built in 1814, by a company of shareholders, at the cost of about £2000. This building, sometimes called the Old Town Hall, is used occasionally for assemblies, concerts, lectures, exhibitions, &c., and under it is the Police Office."

William White Directory of Staffordshire. 1851

In 1789 Longton's first market-square (Times Square) was laid out at the junction of the Uttoxeter and the Stone roads. Five years later in 1794 a second market-square (later Union Square) was laid out at the north end of Commerce Street, here the Union Hotel was built.

In 1814, in front of the Union Hotel, the Union Market Hall, (later known as the Longton Court House or the Old Town Hall) was built. At the time of its demolition in 1950 it was a two-storied building with a front of five bays, having a central Venetian window beneath a small pediment. The ground floor arches had been filled in and the walls faced with stucco, alterations dating probably from 1856. The site is now occupied by a small public garden.

On the construction of the North Staffordshire Railway's line from Stoke to Uttoxeter and Burton in 1848, a station was opened at Longton. An omnibus ran twice daily from the station and the Union Hotel to Hanley and Burslem by 1851 and to Stoke by 1854. This service continued until at least 1860.

Source: Victoria History of Staffordshire (vol VIII)