The Shoulder of Mutton public house used to stand on this site in Victorian times. Amos Funge was the landlord in 1871. It used to have rooms for lodgers. One census listed them as a bonnet ironer, an ostler, a hawker, a musician, a carpenter and travellers from York and Cornwall.
The pub closed in 1903 and from at least 1908 until 1933 there was a fruit shop here run by Ann Wildman, who previously had been the landlady at the Rose and Crown nearby.
Blindell's, the shoe shop, opened here just before the Second World War.
The building was declared to be unsafe in 1959 and was demolished. Controversially, the frontage of the replacement building was set further back from the road in what was intended to be the pattern for future development of the area.
Burgess Stationers occupied the new building, which later became the first Ladbrokes betting office in Dunstable. The bookmaker subsequently expanded into the shop next door.
Text: John Buckledee of Dunstable and District Local History Society. ©
Design: David Turner.
Narration: Catherine Maile of Dunstable Repertory Company.
Recording: David Hornsey.
Website developer: Joshua Buckledee.