The Bassett Hotel, two bears and a dog-faced baboon

Despite being mostly lost from living memory, during its heyday in the 1950s, patrons regularly shared stories of the many animals who formerly lived at the Bassett Road establishment and all their entertaining feats.

It is difficult to believe now, yet some time ago, the pub's beer garden was home to two bears, Miskka and Buster.

Hailing from Archangel, Miskka was a Russian bear who lived for more than three decades at the hotel. Also was Buster - a beloved local icon of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

The Russian animal, owned by landlord, TA Ward, once escaped from his bear pit in 1877, when the pub stood in what was then a lonely country lane. It was hunted down by men using nets on Southampton Common.

In 1958 one of the hotel’s oldest customers, Percy Ganaway, told the Daily Echo: “As a young lad of seven some 70 years ago I remember being brought along to the hotel by my father to see the bear.

“Men used to pour quarts of beer down a chute for the bear, and he’d take as much as anyone wanted to give him, although I have seen him a bit wobbly.”

On July 18, 1907, the bear, which had been purchased as a cub from a sailor in Southampton Docks more than 30 years prior, met with an unfortunate end. His cage was found to be no longer secure and he was shot.

Miskka was stuffed by a taxidermist and exhibited in a glass case at the Bassett Hotel for decades after his death.

Bear number two, Buster, had a chequered career, as part of the private menagerie of the once well-known Southampton publican, Arthur Cornish-Trestrail.

Buster was a great attraction and a firm favourite with youngsters especially when his owner, known to many Southampton people as “Tress”, went in and played with the bear.

Unfortunately, Buster suffered an unfortunate incident involving a Totton woman, who placed her hand in his cage. She was bitten and a finger had to be amputated.

In 1932, Buster's aggression escalated when he attacked Tress. His claws caused lacerations to his face and arm, so authorities were forced to take action by shooting the bear.

In April, 1929 a far more harrowing animal attack occurred involving Tress, when he was attacked by a South African dog-faced baboon known as Horace. As a result of the encounter, his face and arm were severely mauled - requiring 16 stitches for his wounds.

On that occasion, Tress was lucky as the baboon leapt at his throat but he ducked just in time and the five-foot-tall monkey failed to inflict what could easily have been a death blow.

At one time Tress, who died in January, 1958, was undoubtedly one of Southampton’s most colourful characters and was the elder son of Alex Cornish-Trestrail, for 36 years landlord of The Star Hotel, Southampton.

As a young man, Tress, emigrated to Australia, where he became an electrical engineer.

At the outbreak of the First World War he joined the Australian forces in the Corps of Signals and went with them to India.

He was commissioned into the Indian Army and after the war fought in the Afghan campaign in which he was mentioned in dispatches.

Tress returned to England on demobilisation and became the proprietor of the East Street Picture House, one of Southampton’s earliest cinemas.

He left there to take over the Wheatsheaf Hotel in Bernard Street from where he went to the Bassett Hotel, which became one of Southampton’s best-known pubs where he established a private zoo in the hotel gardens.

He remained there during most of the Second World War, commanded a Home Guard company, and then transferred to the Cowherds on the Common.

On his death the Daily Echo wrote: “He was a well-known sportsman and an outstandingly successful gun.

“Between the world wars he took an active part in the old town carnivals and acted as marshal.

“Tress was a familiar horseback figure at the head of the processions.

“One year he organised a cavalry troop, which camped out on the Common and cantered through the town to advertise the coming event.”

Other animals to call the pub garden home were sheep, Shetland ponies and horses to name but a few.

The Bassett Hotel closed in the 1990s before being demolished and replaced by a care home.

The pub, once a Cooper's Brewery House, was located at 111 Burgess Road, and in 1871 George Washington Jones was landlord before it came to be known as Bassett Hotel.

As well as the animals, the pub became famous for its gardens and amusements such as boxing matches which helped draw crowds.

It also served as the first home for the world-renowned Concorde Club before its relocation to Stoneham Lane and hosted plenty of well-known acts from 1960s, among them Manfred Mann who were regulars there.

Watney's Brewery gained possession of the Bassett Hotel and spent £80,000 on refurbishment in 1972 when they converted it into a Berni Steak House.

Eventually Whitbread’s Brewery purchased the pub before closing its doors sometime during the 1990s when demolition works took place and a care home erected.