The White Hart

It is not clear how long The White Hart has stood overlooking Brentwood high street. There has been a building called The White Hart in Brentwood since about 1480, but the name itself is much older, as the White Hart was the badge of King Richard II (1377-1399). Richard II visited Brentwood at least once in 1392, and it could be that the inn was named in his honour.

Until at least the mid 18th century, the majority of the building retained its medieval structure - which was a large gabled front with an archway leading through to a courtyard behind.

The White Hart was the principle inn in Brentwood, and by the mid 1700s there were regular carriages going to and from the inn, as travellers came to and from London. This meant that regular trade came to Brentwood for all manor of goods, and the town also became a key stopping point when cows were taken from the countriside to market in London.

There were other important uses for inns in the 18th and 19th centuries besides being stopping points for travellers. The White Hart was also the regular location for important community meetings - auctions and assizes were held there, and even freemasons met there.

Some time in the late 18th or 19th century the entire facade was rebuilt in Georgian style, possibly first as two floors and later as three.

In 1826 there were 14 bedrooms in the building and space for 26 visiting horses and three carriages, as well as 12 post horses for the regular mail that passed to and from the town. At this time there were regularly more than 100 carriages a day passing through Brentwood. And in 1834 a spectacle occured at the White Hart, when, after a grand dinner, the first gas lights in the town were turned on.

A description of the inn in 1845 is given in "The Fortunes of the Scattergood Family", and says: "And there are few hostelries in England into which a traveller would sooner turn for entertainment for himself or animal than that of the White Hart, whose effigy looks placidly along the principal street from his lofty bracket, secured thereto by a costly gilt chain, which assuredly prevents him from jumping down and plunging into the leafy glades and coverts within view. And when you enter the great gate, there is a friendly look in the old carved gallery running above the yard, which speaks of comfort and hospitality; you think at once of quiet chambers; beds, into which you dive, and sink at least three feet down, for their very softness; with sweet, clean country furniture, redolent of lavender. The pantry, too, is a thing to see: not so much for the promise of refection which it discloses, as for its blue Dutch tiles, with landscapes thereon, where gentlemen of meditative minds, something between Quakers and British yeomen, are walking about in wonderful coats, or fishing in troubled waters".

The arrival of the railway in 1840 meant that fewer and fewer people travelled by coach, and newer hotels were opening by the railway - taking business away from The White Hart. A description from 1879, when a group of cyclists stopped at the inn, says how "tea was ordered, which was anything but a success, the food being neither good nor cheap." This was only a few years after almost every window in the inn had been broken during a brawl between two political parties.

In 1877 the White Hart became the base for local masons, who moved their lodge there from Romford. It remained a regular meeting point for masons until 1964. It was also the location of regular auctions at the end of the 19th century for development land in the town.

At the outbreak of the first world war, the 54th East Anglian division trained around Brentwood, and the White Hart was used as their headquarters.

In 1930 the entire frontage of the White Hart was rebuilt in a style that almost copied the previous Georgian front, with a new door inserted on the right side of the facade.

One remant of the medieval White Hart that still remained was the statue of the White Hart itself, which was described as early as 1845 and had probably been re-made a number of times over the centuries. Even this had vanished by the 1920s.

The landlord before the second world war, Mr Aldridge, was called up for service and he returned in 1943. After the war, he and his wife continued to run the White Hart until 1966. In about 2007 it was converted into The Sugar Hut nightclub and became a venue with many "famous" clients. The building was badly damaged by fire in September 2009. The club closed in 2020 at the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, and seems to have never financially recovered. It was put up for sale in 2024. There is a reported ghost in the building.