The Bridge Inn

link to french translationThe Bridge Inn, Rose Hill Street, Conwy

This building, on a prominent corner at the main entrance to Conwy, was originally the Castle View Hotel. Cadw, the historic monuments agency, has suggested it was built in the mid 19th century. The 1871 census records that the hotel keeper was William Abram. By 1895 it had become a temperance hotel.

The name had changed to the Bridge Hotel by 1899, when American mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Driver stayed there with her parents. The first people this side of the Atlantic to hear her were worshippers at St Mary’s Church in Conwy, who were unexpectedly treated to some solos one afternoon. Miss Driver, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was given the bardic name “Llinos Maldwyn” when she was initiated into the Geirionydd Gorsedd, a group of bards which met by Geirionydd lake in Snowdonia. She later performed with the Liverpool Philharmonic.

The pub made headlines in February 2011 when its licensee, Justin Mathis, disappeared without leaving any explanation or clues. Police renewed their appeal for information about him a year later.

In 1999 the licensee, Grant Williams, began to use quiet moments at the Bridge to write a soap opera set in a pub, publishing weekly instalments on the internet. This pre-dated blogging, and the venture was publicised on BBC Radio 1 and elsewhere.

In 2015 the pub was acquired by the consortium of four North Wales breweries which had successfully taken over The Albion in Conwy in 2012. In 2018 a wood-fired pizza oven was installed and the building became Johnny Dough’s at The Bridge.

See the footnotes below for details of previous licensees

With thanks to Ray Castle, and to Llew Groom of Aberconwy Historical Society

Postcode: LL32 8LD    View Location Map

Website of Johnny Dough's

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FOOTNOTES
: Details of previous licensees

1868-75 William Abram, Castle View Hotel, a temperance hotel       
1880-96 Thomas Abram
1899 Miss Davies is proprietress of the Bridge Hotel, Family and Commercial
1911 Oscar J Yates
1913 AA Kerridge
1918 HB Middleton, proprietor
1922 A Middleton
1922 John William Morgan 
1928 Building Control plans approved for alterations to Bridge Hotel for Ind Coope & Co Ltd
1960 J Pitt, proprietor
2011 New landlady is Lynne Plumb. Owner of pub is Marstons Breweries
2015 Pub acquired by consortium of local craft breweries
2018 Reopened as Johnny Dough's at The Bridge