The Globe
| Status: | Open as a pub |
| Phone: | 01255 504999 |
The Globe is a traditional pub in a fabulous and unspoilt old building close to the Navy Yard and the Quay. Pop in for a beer and it is easy to imagine the shipwrights doing the same thing 250 years ago.
History
The Globe's history as a pub seems to start in 1753 when it became a public house operated by Thomas Cobbold as part of his brewery and tied estate in the town. It was probably a house prior to that dating from the early to mid 17th Century.
Inside the pub has its amazing timber frame exposed with an “A” frame roof. The ground and first floor framing is chamfered with lamb's tongue stops and halved and bridled scarf joints in the top plates and the corner is supported on a dragon beam. The first floor rooms have series of contemporary plaster ceilings with plastered beam soffits with rose, fleur-de-lys leaves and circular pendants.
The Globe occupies a prime position in the town, being next to the King's Quay, close to early fortifications and later the shipyard. In the early 1770s there are various references to one Francis Pulham as landlord of the Globe with auctions and sales being frequently held there. In the early 1820s John Etherden is the landlord and continues the pub's links with auctions, shipbuilding and seaborne commerce.
When the Harwich Brewery was sold off in 1837 the pub was listed as having a Bar, Wash-house, Pantry, good Tap Room, Parlor, two large Cellars under, spacious Club Room over Parlor, Bed Room and Loft; another front Bed Room, and Soldiers' Room, approached by separate staircase, two good Attics, Yard and Pump of Water.
The presence of a “Soldiers' Room” at the pub shows that there was a room available as a billet for military personal in the town. It isn't clear who bought the Globe at auction in 1837 but John Etherden stayed on as landlord, appearing as landlord in Pigot's 1839 Directory. Interestingly the pub reputably sold for £680 – making it the second-most valuable property in the Harwich Brewery estate.
Robert Orvis is landlord from 1848 to 1874 during which time the strong links with shipbuilding continue. In 1853 the barque Lady Maynard is launched at the old Navy Yard – now a private yard in the hands of Mr. Vaux who, on the evening of the launch, “gave a supper to his workmen at the Globe Inn”.
It is interesting to speculate that the purchaser of the pub at the Harwich Brewery sale in 1837 was John Postford Osborne, a Colchester Brewer, because the Globe was certainly in the Osborne family's hands by 1873. The Osborne brewing business merged into the Colchester Brewing Co. in 1886 which, in turn, was swallowed up by Ind Coope in 1925.
In 1951 the building was listed Grade II by English Heritage.
Owners Ind Coope became Allied in 1961, then Allied Lyons in 1978 and finally Allied Domecq in 1994 before all the pubs were sold to Punch Taverns in 1999. The Globe rode out this tumultuous progression of mergers and takeovers and after a brief period of closure emerged in private ownership again.
Today the Globe is a thriving traditional pub with an extensive range of bottled beers.
Notable Facts, Things to Look Out For
- The public house frontage probably dates from the 19th Century.
- The original 17th Century timber frame is best viewed from inside. Often faked in "olde worlde" pubs here you can view the real thing in all its glory.