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There has been some confusion over the White Lion and the Two Lions. The Two Lions frequently mentioned, was apparently next door to the current Memorial Hall, i.e. the site of the Doric, from back in the 17th century and seemingly the building was there still in the early 19th century. As an extract from Chapman's map of 1787 shows, the White Lion was on its current site then, so they must have been two distinctly separate entities. How long the White Lion was been at its current location has yet to be established.

Peter May's book "Newmarket Inventories 1662 to 1715" recounts that he held from the lord of the manor a tenement called the "White Lion in a place called Le Frogmore".It is currently not known if this is on the site of the current White Lion (2020). There is a confusion here as Peter May's book "Changing Face of Newmarket 1600-1760", mentioned Frogmore being near the Cornhill and that Frogmore was an area between the back of the Bull yard and the Watercourse. This area was destroyed by the fire of 1683.

When the hotel was virtually rebuilt in the erly 1930's the swimming pool appeared, a great improvement on the existing "Dip". Refreshment (non alcoholic) could be obtained from a window into the hotel or a purpose built outlet on the balcony of the pool. Although the pool was leased to the local authority, the car parking area out front was always the preserve of the hotel patrons, which could cause some hassle at times. An outdoor facility (from personal experience, at times a very cold dip) it was eventually covered and heated, but the building f a council pool at the new Leisure Centre led to its closure and control returned to Greene, King and it was never used again.

In more recent times the Quarton family maintained a presence for many years, including the take over from Wells & Winch by Greene,King. The final stage was set when it was purchased by Bill Gredley's Unex company and was to be demolished and replaced by a modern hotel in conjunction with a large re-development scheme. This would have linked a large area owned by the developers from the High Street, including Queensbury Lodge, Heath Garage and right through to Rowley Drive and encompassing a large superstore for ASDA. This however fell foul of the local planning controls, ie once a stable, always a stable, and the scheme covered two or three unused stable yards..The closure of the hotel in 2016 came as somewhat of a shock to the townsfolk who were used to seeing crowds of customers there on race days, being the last stop for a beer before the long walk to the race course.
Currently(2023) with the swimming pool filled in, the hotel is boarded up awaiting planning permission for some other use.
It survived a fire on 3rd November 2018

click here to go to the White Lion in www.newmarketshops.info

KNOWN LICENSING HISTORY
KNOWN LICENSING HISTORY

Year	Licensee	Owner	source
1768			Chapman's map
1786	Eizabeth Dannells		Bury and Norwich Post
1798	Thomas Howard		directory
1823			Cambridge Chronicle & Journal
1823	Philip Arber		Pigot
1841	" "		census
1855	" "		White
1858	" "	for sale	Cambridge Chronicle & Journal
1861	" " (died 1863)	Phillips (brewer)	census
1865	Elizabeth Arber (widow of previous)	purchased Inn for £820	Bury Free Press
1868	" " (died 1870)	Elizabeth Arber	Morris
1870 Mar.	John Lancaster	for sale	Bury Free Press
1871	John Lancaster		census
1872	James Bartholomew (ex "Crown")	James Bartholomew	Newmarket Journal
1881	" "(died 1887)	" "	census
1887	Matilda Bartholomew (widow of previous)	Matilda Bartholomew	White
1891	" "	" "	census
1892 Nov	" "(died 1892)	" "
1892 Nov	Thomas Bartholomew son of previous (died 1896)	" "	Newmarket Journal
1896	Mrs Charlotte Anne Barholomew (widow of above)	" "
Sept 1899	Frank Cruxton (married previous)	" "	Cambridge Chronicle & Journal
1900	Frank Cruxton	" "	Kelly
1901	" "	bankruptcy proceedings	census ≈ Cambridge Independent Press
1904 Nov 29	Charlotte Cruxton (wife of previous)	" "	Newmarket Journal
1904 Nov 29	Thomas Robertson	" "	Newmarket Journal
1906	Alice Maria Gage (Mrs)	Hudson Ltd, Papmpisford	Newmarket Journal
1912	Alice Maria Gage (widow of previous)	" "
1929	Alice Maria Gage	" "	Kelly
1932 Mar 1	Herbert Peacock	Wells & Winch, Biggleswade	Kelly
1934 Feb 13	Mrs. Maud Ferguson	" "	Newmarket Journal
1936 Oct 6	Keith Christopher Dodson		Newmarket Journal
1938 Oct 18	Norbert H Dawson	" "	" "
1940 Apr 14	Frederick Cope	" "	" "
1941	Ronald Cedric Quarton	" "	" "
1949 Jan 11	Ronald Cedric Quarton	" "	" "
1973 Oct	Stephen Quarton (son of previous)	Greene,King
1988	Peter Thorogood
1988 Nov	Neil Beaton	" "
1992 Jul	Donald Beaton (co-licensee)father-in-law of previous	" "
1993 Jul	Patrick Doherty	" "
1994 Apr	Mark Roberts (ex "Bushel")	" "	" "
2005 Nov 24	Mrs Jill Paine	Greene,King	licensing register
2006 Jan	Kevin Quirk and Michael Berry	" "	"
2011 May 6	Nigel Andrew Wild	" "	" "
2012	Nigel Andrew Wild and Gary Hatcham	" "	Newmarket Journal
? ?	Hugh and Elizabeth McIntyre	" "	Newmarket Journal
2014 May 12	Ms Lee Mansfield Charlesworth	" "	" "
2014 Dec 11	Miss Dawn Louise Kelly	" "	" "
2015 Dec 9	Ms Wendy Rudd	" "	" "
2016 Jun 2	" "	Unex (No.3) Ltd	" "
2016 Jun 2	licence surrendered

There is some confusion over the licence for Ronald Quarton. Frederick Cope held the full licence from 14th April 1940. Then many Newmarket Journals have Ronald Quarton as licensee from 1941 right through until on 11th January 1949 the full licence was transferred from Frederic Cope to Ronald Quarton. Ronald Quarton most certainly ran the White Lion throughout that period

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