Historic Yeovil town centre pub sold after sudden closure

A closed pub in Yeovil town centre has been sold after being shut for several months. The Pall Tavern on Silver Street has been closed since Autumn last year when the pub suddenly served its last pint to customers.

The Pall Tavern is a substantial Grade II Listed building arranged over three floors and situated in the heart of the town centre with origins dating back to the early 18th Century. Its sudden closure left Yeovil town centre with only William Dampier, The Armoury and The Butchers Arms remaining, with other hotels and bars still open.

But the Pall Tavern has been sold by Christie & Co this week for an undisclosed fee. It is unclear if the pub will remain as a pub or be converted for alternative uses.

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Richard Wood, regional director in the Christie & Co’s Pubs & Restaurant Team who acted on the sale said: "We are delighted to have completed on the sale of the Pall Tavern. This deal illustrates the continued demand we have seen throughout the start of 2024 for all types of pubs across the South West."

According to local historian Bob Osborn at yeovilhistory.info, it is not clear when the Pall Tavern first opened its doors - the current building dates from 1836, but its predecessor had been trading for many generations. The oldest recorded pub in the vicinity of what is now the Pall Tavern was Woborn Almshouse, founded in 1477 and sited just behind the current pub on the site that is now occupied now by Memsaab.

Mr Osborne writes: "The first record in which the Pall is mentioned as an inn as opposed to a private dwelling, is in a lease dated 1769 in which it was claimed to be 'in very ruinous condition'. In 1837 a day coach, called the Victoria, left the Pall Tavern three times a week for Salisbury - a journey that took seven hours.

"A pall, or mortcloth, is a cloth which covers a coffin at funerals and for many years the sign of the Pall Tavern was based on an elaborate pall owned by the Woborn Almshouse that was hired out for such occasions. The Pall Tavern, properly, should be pronounced The 'Paul' Tavern."