The Flying Horse

Dating to 1483, the Flying Horse nestles modestly in the shadows of its 19th and 20th-century neighbors. This 500-year-old city center stalwart has been used as a private home, a coaching inn, a public house, and a shop. Since 1989, it has formed the somewhat improbable ingress to a charmingly winding arcade of boutiques.

The building was originally constructed as a home for wealthy merchants. But by its 300th birthday, it had been repurposed as a popular coaching tavern called the Travellers Inn. In the following century, the Inn had a change of name to The Flying Horse, possibly to tempt would-be horse-drawn coach travelers away from the competition by creating an association between the inn, fleet-footed steeds, and swift journey times.

The coaching inn eventually morphed into a public house, which persisted long after horses and carriages had disappeared from the city streets, finally closing its door to drinkers in 1989. Happily, the listed historic building was given a new lease on life, being incorporated into and giving its name to the tiny shopping mall that was constructed behind it. As if to keep the building’s boozy past alive, a popular craft ale shop occupies one of the shop units in the Flying Horse Arcade.