The Showman - Cowick Street

This pub, next to St Thomas Church goes back to at least 1805 when the Lamb and Lion is mentioned specifically "as near the church". It was also listed in 1810 according to A E Richardson, the last editor of the Flying Post in 1917. The last listing as the Lamb and Lion was in Pigot's, 1830 edition.There is some evidence that it became the Lamb and Flag in 1834 and then the Prince Albert after 1840 , the year Queen Victoria married Prince Albert. It was definitely listed in 1844, as the Prince Albert. It was leased to Harding and Richards, the precursors of St Anne's Well Brewery from at least 1844.

From 1889, through the First War to 1928, the publican was John Frost Dodd. In 1928, a deed of conveyance stated that the pub came "...together with the Brewhouse, Cellars, Skittle Alley,Stable and premises..."

In 1955 the skittle alley was rebuilt and in 1961 the bars underwent modernisation. After a 150 years as the Prince Albert, the pub was put up for sale in 1994. In July 1996, the new owners, a Satan's Slave chapter, renamed the Prince Albert, the Road House. Under the new management it sported a smart new sign that showed a biker riding across a red and orange sky.

In October 2005 the public house came under new management, a brother and sister team who had previously run the Village Inn in Exwick. They changed the name to the Showman. They also courted a certain amount of publicity by opposing the, then forthcoming, smoking ban in pubs.

Three known landlords:

1844 - Prince Albert Tavern - Thomas Smith - Pigots
1897 and 1923 - Prince Albert PH - John Dodd - Kellys
1939 - Prince Albert - Albert John Loveless