Initially the property of the Weatherby family, sold to William Parr Isaacson and then becoming The Subscription Rooms some time after 1851. It was then an elite members club where high ranking gamblers would arrange their bets, the populace at large waiting for word from inside before making their own wagers From the reports of changes of use and voluntary liquidation in 1929 the Club had a varied life, but was always deemed to be one of the "respectable" clubs to which to belong. In the immediate follow up of the bombing of the High Street and destruction of the telephone exchange, a temporary exchange was set up in the Subscription Rooms. Finally closed in 1981 and was followed by the National Horseracing Museum. From Mike Petty's Newmarket Scrapbook:- "8th December 1981 - Newmarket history went under the hammer when the contents of one of the town's gentlemen's club were auctioned. The 200-year-old Subscription Rooms Club closed because of falling membership and the Jockey Club received the contents in lieu of payment for deterioration. The premises are now likely to become the home of a national racing museum." It remains to be seen (2023) what purpose the building will serve now that the Museum has relocated. click here to go to www.newmarketshops.info for more details
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Year | Licensee | Owner | source |
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1871 | Janet McNaught (housekeeper) | census | |
1892 | Philip Henry Cambray (manager) | Kelly | |
1901 | Emily Cartwright (manageress) | census | |
1911 | Alice South (manageress) | census | |
1916 | Agnes Davis (manageress - fined £2 for black-out offence | Bury Free Press | |
1917 | A.Harold Ruston sec. | directory | |
1926 | Miss Davis | Newmarket directory | |
1936 | Dorothy Mates (Mrs) (manageress) | " " | |
Subscription Rooms & Jockey Club c.1900
Thanks to 'Old Newmarket' for the above photo- below, an enlargement of the entrance 2015