At the end of the 19th century, ‘first-class, sprung carriages pulled by grays or bays’ were available for hire from the livery stables which stood next to and partly on this site. North Street was laid out in 1786 and widened in the 1880s, with the first of these buildings constructed. In the 1890s, this site was occupied by a cabman’s shelter at the front and the town hall livery stables at the rear. The stables’ offices were converted into the Regent cinema in 1920.