Tonbridge, High Street, Ye Olde Chequers Inn 1890

Photo ref: T1015004

More about this scene

The late 15th-century half-timbered Chequers Inn, with its gabled frontage and a swinging sign said to have been put up in the reign of Elizabeth I, stands on the west side of this busy street. Next door is a fine town house, now a restaurant, but which at the time of this photograph was occupied by a pawnbroker, whose sign of three gold balls can be seen on the upper storey. Further along on the opposite side of the street is the Rose and Crown, a 16th-century building which was altered two hundred years later by being given a chequered brick front. Above the porch are the arms of the Duchess of Kent, Queen Victoria's mother, who stayed here before her daughter's accession.