BRIGG PUBS STOOD SIDE BY SIDE & COMPETED FOR CUSTOM

Brigg once had two pubs that were next door to each other within the town centre.
This must have stretched the saying "There's nothing like a bit of healthy competition" to its limits!
In the Market Place, for many decades, the much larger Woolpack adjoined the Hope Inn, also occupying three floors.
The 'Woolie' was owned and operated by local brewery company Sergeant & Co for some time, and sold its popular Brigg Ales.
The Hope (centre of the picture) stocked ales and stouts from Newark's Hole & Co Ltd, which  acquired 33 hostelries in Lincolnshire during the mid-1920s.
We think this archive image might date from that period or perhaps the early 1930s.
The inn and the hotel both appeared in the renowned Pigott's Directory in 1841 when the town boasted an impressive 30 licensed premises of varying sizes.
Several bricked-up windows on the frontage of the Woolpack are an interesting feature of this  picture, when compared with the modern view below.
The hated Window Tax, first introduced in 1696 and based on the number of windows a property had, was not repealed until 1851.
Could it be that a past owner of the Woolpack took steps to reduce the tax bill?
Still trading today as licensed premises, the Woolpack building is grade two listed and described as being late 18th century. It became a listed building in 1976.
Does anyone know the date when the Hope Inn closed?