Bohemia Village Voice  Bohemia Village Voice

For bohemians everywhere

The Prince of Wales, 84, Bohemia Road

THE PUBS OF BOHEMIA – No 5 by David Russell (Dec 2010)

Bohemia Road, number 84 (Sept 2010)

Bohemia Road, number 84 (Sept 2010)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Moy, was first landlord and applied for a full licence in 1863 and 1864. He moved here from the ‘Cross Keys’, Marylebone in about 1860. The Prince of Wales was the second fully licensed pub in Bohemia after the Wheatsheaf in 1835.

A Coroner’s Inquest was held at the pub in 1872, into the ‘shocking suicide’ of a 40 year old gardener who lived nearby in Bohemia Road. He was found by his wife hanging from a bed post by a piece of clothes line. Their eleven year old son was a witness. His father had said to him: ‘Goodbye, I shall be missing when you come home from school, be a good boy to your mother and go to school’. The Inquest concluded that he had ‘committed suicide whilst in a state of temporary insanity’. He was buried in Bohemia Cemetery. (Where is Bohemia Cemetery?)

During WW2 the pub was run by Roland ‘Jack’ Berwick. Roland worked as a ‘Gentleman’s Gentleman’ for an American millionaire before the war and ran the pub from 1944 until his death in 1946. His widow, Maggie May Berwick, took over until 1948.

After the war the Prince of Wales had returning prisoners of war among its customers and this is where Roland’s daughter Lena Berwick met her future husband Norman Sendall. Their daughter was born here in 1947. Norman and Lena ran the FILO until 1948. The family now live in Silverhill.

The pub closed in 1971 and the building became the home of Gwen Watford an English film, stage, and television actress. Watford trained at the Old Vic and made her film début playing Lady Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher (1949). Other films included Cleopatra, (1963) and Cry Freedom (1987).

After her death in 1994 the building became the headquarters of Hastings Labour Party.
o David (200227) is interested in Hastings & St Leonards’ pub memories & photos.

COMMENT(S)

BOHEMIAN GRAVE In answer to the question posed by David Russell in the last issue of the Bohemia Village Voice (Where is Bohemia Cemetery?) Some enthusiastic readers came in, having done a bit of detective work with some photocopies of some beautiful old maps of the Bohemia area (picture below). So Bohemia Cemetary was on the Oval, just behind the school. Could this in in anyway effect plans for development of this area? Sarah Janes, Feb 2011.

Bohemia Cemetery

Bohemia Cemetery

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