Pub history · No.5 of 18 · Ironbridge
The Tontine Hotel
1780 | Built for the world's first Ironbridge tourists
The Tontine tells us something wonderful about Ironbridge.
Tourists have been coming here almost from the beginning.
The hotel was built in 1780, facing the new Iron Bridge, to accommodate the stream of people arriving to see what was effectively one of the wonders of the new industrial age.
It became much more than somewhere to sleep.
Industrialists gathered here. Travellers used it as a coaching inn. The Shropshire Canal Company met here. An extension followed in 1786.
And its name is wonderfully peculiar.
A tontine was a financial scheme in which subscribers invested money and surviving members gained increasing shares as others died or withdrew.
The scheme connected with Ironbridge was never completed.
The name survived anyway.
Nearly 250 years later, the Tontine is still standing opposite the reason it was built.
How we know this date
- TraditionLocal histories consistently describe the hotel as built in 1780–84 by the proprietors of the Iron Bridge to accommodate the visitors arriving to see it, with an extension in 1786.Source: Local histories of Ironbridge
- DocumentedThe Tontine is a listed building, confirming the survival and importance of the early hotel fabric facing the bridge.Source: Historic England list entry 1207874
This is a working date. If you have a document or photograph that changes it, we'd genuinely like to see it.
Tourists have been coming here almost from the beginning.
The Tontine Hotel · Ironbridge
Can you help with The Tontine Hotel?
We're still researching this pub. Old photographs, licences, newspaper cuttings, brewery documents or family memories all help — and if you have evidence that changes our date, we'd genuinely like to see it.
Stay in the loop
Get the week's events by email
One short email each week: live music, events and new history features from the Gorge. No spam, unsubscribe any time.