The History Of The Punch Bowl

Whenever we ask about our old buildings, the people of Mapperley never disappoint. We recently asked: Can anyone explain the history of The Punch Bowl public house on Porchester Road?

The question arose when we noticed the name on the original pedestrian entrance gate at the corner of Porchester Road and Daisy Road. This clearly shows the name of the building as Carnarvon House. 

It’s worth remembering the Porchester Road wasn’t the same length in those days and the numbering was different.

Local researcher Richard Johnson provided us with this section of a map showing what was there in 1899. There were four properties between Daisy Road and Kenrick Road.

One of the Nottingham history blogs suggested that in 1910 there were two buildings named Morley Villas (listed as between Kenrick Road and Daisy Road). Searching Wright’s Directory for 1910-11 revealed that a Walter Henry Jaques was a manager at Morley Villas, Porchester Road along with a George Frederick Jaques, a Railway Canvasser

Porchester Road between Kenrick Road and Daisy Road is now a pub (the Punchbowl) and its grounds.  It looks like there were originally two detached properties that have been joined together to make the pub as it is today. It’s covered in rendering to make it appear homogenous but the original parts look early 1900s (though I’m just guessing from the features). This implies that one half of the pub could have been Morley Villas. There are a couple of pictures of the Punchbowl at www.picturethepast.org.uk.

Another blog suggests

Originally a private home belonging to the Chester family, it became the exotic sounding Deccan Club. During World War II, the building was requisitioned first as an ARP headquarters and then as a US Army intelligence headquarters and officers’ mess. It was at this time that it developed a local reputation for being little more than a brothel for the benefit of the GIs.

Even accepting it started out as two premises, the history of Carnarvon House is not clear. 

Another site suggests that before the Second World War, the building was home to the Chester family, then used by the US Army and later became the Deccan Club.

David Wilson told us:

In the 1939 Register a family named Chester were living at Carnarvon House. Ronald T Chester (born 1918) was described as a book binder with a number of others including (presumably) his parents Frank G Chester, a builder born in 1885.

The next entry listed number 163 Porchester Road where a William Bishop lived. At 161 Porchester Road was Edith Sidwell. The next building was number 2 Kenrick Road.  We can presume that Morley Villas was now number 161 – 163 Porchester Road.

Thanks to various contributions, we built up a picture of how the Punch Bowl seems to have developed from more than one building.

Deccan Social Club

This map from the 1950s confirms the Deccan Club existed. Note also that only number 2 Kenrick Road is shown.

Andrew Bombek explained:

There was a chap who owned this during the 70s and 80s. He had the house or two next door to it and he sold up eventually. He couldn’t refuse the offer as it was a lot of money back then. It was the only pub in the area that served till 11 during the 70s but only on Friday and Saturday.

Lucie Cutts gave us the name of the landlord from that period.

It was owned by Stan and Marjorie Culley in the 70s. They were good friends with my auntie and uncle, Sheila and Bill Hopcroft.

What we didn’t know was when it became the Punchbowl.

David Wilson gave us the answer with this image from 1961. The news archives of the opening of the Punchbowl by Stan Culley in Oct 1961 shows what appears to be a single former substantial house. Previous to that it was the Deccan Club that opened in 1949.

Here is the same view showing how the building has been modified since.

Kenrick Road

At the moment, the first property on Kenrick Road is number 6. Rob Humphreys recalls that his family lived at 6 Kenrick Road for over 100 years and were coal merchants. Number 6 Kenrick Road still has the storage area and workshops, operating at Ace Motors 

Further Alterations

In 1977 the pub building was expanded and it has had a number of significant alterations in the late 1980s and also in the 1990s. 

This is how it looks now. 

Why the name of The Punch Bowl?

Maybe the choice of name is only known to relatives of Stan Culley, when he chose it for his new free-house in 1961.

Historically, there have been many inns and pubs by that name, going back 400 years. A Punch Bowl is the recepticle used to serve the alcoholic drink known as Punch. The name comes from the hindi word paantsch, meaning ‘five’’. The drink was made from five different ingredients: spirit, sugar, lemon, water or tea and spices. The drink was brought back from India to England by the sailors and employees of the British East India Company in the early seventeenth century, and from there it was introduced into other European countries.

In Nottingham there was a pub by that name on Peck Lane, gpoing back 100s of years. Peck Lane went on to be named St Peter’s Gate. 

Ironically, The Deccan is a name of the southern peninsula of India, south of the Narmada River. The name comes from the Sanskrit word daksina, which means “south”. How the name was taken by the social club in Nottingham is not known.