My great great grandmother Elizabeth (Betsy) Turland was also living in Hope Street in 1901, at another beerseller's shop at number 54. This was on the south side of the street, two properties east of the School, so within a hundred yards or so of the Red Lamp. I think the shop was probably not so well appointed, as yours, though the plot is larger than average for Hope Street, and has a narrow yard and a couple of sheds behind it, rather than the congested 'Courts' that lie behind most of Hope Street houses. The street must have been horribly crowded, and noisy in the day (from the School), at night (from the Music Hall opposite), and possibly at the weekends from the Baptist Chapel further towards Gooch Street (that also has an interesting history). Plus all the pubs.
The beer retailer at 54 was Joseph Sheffield, who lived there with his father and young son; his wife had died and Elizabeth came to live with them as a housekeeper. There was also a young servant, who presumably helped in the shop. Elizabeth was originally from the village of Great Glen in Leicestershire, and had had a rough life. She left a young son Robert with friends in Great Glen when she was just a young girl, then married a man with whom she had two daughters. Both little girls died in the slums of Leicester, and her husband was prosecuted for abandoning her and one of the daughters. They ended up in the workhouse, temporarily. Although Elizabeth is shown in the 1901 census as a widow, in fact her husband was still alive in Leicester. She remembered the little Sheffield boy with a small bequest in her will when she died back in Leicester, in 1909. And her own son was my great grandfather, Robert Grant.
Any more photos of Hope Street would be very welcome! the ones originally posted seem mainly to have disappeared.
