tablecloths

amazing and soooo depressing... ( btw..., for me as a foreigner, the word "larceny" is so musical and interesting !

Newspaper account: "IMPUDENT THEFTS AT NORTH SHIELDS To-day at North Shields, Mabel Smith alias Tone (40), a married woman of no fixed abode, was charged on remand with stealing on the 27th of July, from the dwelling house 90 Grey Street, three table-cloths, two pillow cases, and one bolster, valued 9s 3d, the property of Elizabeth Turnbull. -- Prosecutrix stated that on July 27th the defendant went to her house and asked for lodgings. She gave the name of Leightman and said she was a school teacher belonging to Sunderland. Witness took her in, the understanding being for her to pay 6s per week for her rooms. On the 29th of July witness went out, leaving the prisoner in the house. When she returned prisoner had gone out, leaving a note behind her saying she would be back again at seven o'clock with her box. Witnessed missed the goods mentioned in the charge and gave information to the police. -- Susan Walker, an assistant with Mr Geo. Wilson, pawnbroker, Saville Street, deposed to taking the goods in pawn from the prisoner. She gave the name of Mary Dodds, of Collingwood Terrace, and said the goods were her own. -- Detective-Sergeant Scougal deposed to receiving the prisoner into custody from the Durham City police last Saturday as she came out of gaol. He charged her with the offence, and she replied, "I took them; I must have been mad." There was a further charge against prisoner of stealing from a dwelling house a 22 Whitby Street, on the 30th of July, a silk blouse valued 11s, the property of Ada Green. -- Mrs Georgina Brown, a widow residing at the above address, stated on the date in question prisoner went to her house and asked for lodgings. She took her into the back sitting room, and a few minutes later went to make the tea ready, leaving prisoner by herself. There was a parcel in the room at the time containing a silk blouse and other goods, the proper of her (witness') sister. About an hour later prisoner left the house, and witness missed the blouse from the parcel, and gave information to the police. -- Det. Sergt. Scougal spoke to charing the prisoner, who replied, "I don't remember ever having been there; I must have been mad." -- Several convictions for similar offences were put in, and the Bench sent her to prison for one month on each charge." --- Shields Daily Gazette, 3 Oct 1903, page 5.

Awesome!

Hardly definitive, but the arching on the 2 windows (left background) and the "bay window" (right background) do seem to match the facade in these exterior shots and the below postcard. (Left-most windows as you look at the frontage, with the "bay" window corresponding to the "tower"?).

I found a mention of it in an 1839 directory. streetdirectories.proni.gov.uk/media/0dy7vD9Z0rFwJKu5-Yxi...

From this exterior shot in the nli archive, this hotel looks to be the Ramada Hotel today. The OSNI maps of 1896 and 1904 says it is the Northern Counties Hotel. it isn't there at all on the 1853 map. Aha, from a Wikipedia article on the Northern Counties Committee railway: The BNCR purchased a share in the lease of the long standing and well thought of Antrim Arms hotel at Portrush and in 1883 formed a separate company to manage what was renamed the Northern Counties Hotel

The Antrim Arms was renamed the Northern Counties Hotel in the 1880s (after being acquired by the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Company in 1881). A quick search for "Northern Counties" throws up a number of nice old pics of Portrush and among them this dining room image (which looks the same as "your one" Carol). So I'd say the label is right. I wonder if the date is right though? Given the renaming could the date be earlier?

From Wiki The BNCR purchased a share in the lease of the long standing and well thought of Antrim Arms hotel at Portrush and in 1883 formed a separate company to manage what was renamed the Northern Counties Hotel. Situated on an elevated site, the hotel overlooked the Atlantic Ocean at front and back. With more than one hundred rooms, it was intended to accommodate high-class tourists visiting the Giant's Causeway. The hotel was enlarged and improved in 1884 and 1892 and in 1902 the BNCR purchased the freehold outright from the Earl of Antrim. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Counties_Committee