Now Bill's

Went to Guildford to visit friends and go to the theatre.  The restuarant of the Angel Hotel on the historic cobbled High Street  is now a branch of Bill's, the chain that started as a side line in a greengrocers in Lewes and now one of my favoured eating places.  The rather splendid building  is the sole survivor of Guildford's five large coaching inns.  All roads converge on the Guildford gap to pass through the North Downs and so much of the traffic from London to the central south coast passed through the town.  Travellers needed rest and by the 17th century Guildford had earned a good reputation for its inns.  The inns flourished as road-travel increased, particularly when Portsmouth developed as a major naval base from Restoration times.  Portsmouth was a two day journey from London, and Guildford was a convenient place to stay the night.  The early 1800s saw a boom in the coaching trade.  28 services passed through Guildford, with an average of 10 coaches a day travelling in each direction, with perhaps 200 passengers.
The last coach ran through Guildford in 1849, the year the railway reached Portsmouth from London.