THE YORKSHIRE STINGO
The Yorkshire Stingo, a public-house on the south side of the Marylebone Road, nearly opposite Chapel Street and the entrance to Lisson Grove, is the modern representative of a rural inn of the same name that was in existence at least as early as 1733.
From 1770 (or earlier) extensive tea gardens and a bowling green were attached to the place.[120]
During the first forty years of the present century the gardens were much frequented by the middle classes, especially on Sundays, when admittance was by a six-penny ticket including refreshments. For several years, from about 1790, a fair was held on the first of May at or near the Yorkshire Stingo, and the May-dance with Jack-in-the-Green took place.[121] This fair was suppressed as a nuisance in the early part of the present century.
In 1836 and for a few years following, the Yorkshire Stingo had its Apollo, or Royal Apollo, Saloon, in which concerts, vaudevilles and comic burlettas were given every evening.[122] On gala nights, balloon ascents, fireworks and other entertainments took place in the grounds. The admission was one shilling.
The tea-gardens and bowling green were closed about 1848, and the present County Court and the Marylebone Baths and Wash-Houses,[123] nearly adjoining the present Yorkshire Stingo on the east were built on their site.
[Thomas Smith’s Marylebone, p. 185; Walford, iv. 410; v. 256; Larwood and Hotten, Signboards, p. 384; Picture of London, 1802 and 1829; Wheatley’s London P. and P. “Yorkshire Stingo.”]
VIEWS.
1. “The Yorkshire Stingo in 1770,” a small sketch in Clinch’s Marylebone, p. 46, showing the tavern and the entrance to the tea-gardens.
2. View of the new County Court and the Baths and the Wash-Houses, built upon the ground of the late tea-gardens, &c., of the Yorkshire Stingo Tavern. A woodcut, 1849. Crace, Cat. p. 567, No. 89.