The Shrewsbury Hotel.

This inn was first recorded as the Harp or the Welsh Harp and early records indicate that there was an inn of that name in Mardol as early as 1651 but whether on this site is not known. This building was known as the Harp by 1786 and was where the coaches to Welshpool started their journey. By 1820 the inn was known as the Britannia a name it was to keep until about 1985. By 1828 regular coaches ran from there to Aberystwyth and during the summer period to Barmouth. It was also the terminus for carrier's carts from Montgomery and Ryton-IX-Towns in the middle of the 19th century.

After the death of her husband James Edwards in March 1839 Mrs Edwards announced her intention of continuing to manage the inn, "endeavouring by her own greatest personal exertions to uphold the high character which her late husband established for this house; and she hopes in her bereavement to receive the sanction and patronage of her friends."

For many years it was the home of the Gullet Club. The club was founded in the Gullet in Hill's Lane on 24th February 1785, with meetings held every Tuesday evening between six and ten when each member paid two pence towards a quarterly dinner. The club flourished and soon had over fifty members, but after a disagreement with the landlord of the Gullet Inn the club moved to the Britannia, holding its first quarterly dinner there on 29th July 1845.

Seventy-five members sat down to dinner on the 15th April 1847 and we are informed that they enjoyed, "A baron of beef, a noble joint which had not been cooked in the town for many years." The main guest on this occasion was the Mayor Mr. John Legh. Another special event took place in April 1848 when a whole sheep was roasted and the Mayor Mr. C. Lloyd was present. Around 1870 the rules of the club changed and it adopted political associations, which alienated many members and led to its closure in 1872.

The Britannia was owned by the Right Hon. Earl of Tankerville in 1900 but was looked after by his agents Messrs How & Son. The landlord was James Bray who used to brew and bottle his own beer and ale. The inn had twenty-six rooms. Five were for public use and thirteen were used to accommodate thirty guests overnight but there was only one urinal and toilet to serve the whole hotel. There was accommodation for twenty horses in the stable yard and you could enter the inn from the yard, from Mardol Quay or from Carnarvon Lane.

The hotel was purchased around 1988 by Henri Quinn and his wife Liz who over the next ten years sensitively up graded the business, changing not only its image but also its name from the Britannia to the Shrewsbury Hotel. They retired from the hotel trade in 1998 selling the business on to JD Wetherspoon a national pub chain for a deal said to be worth more than £900,000.