Plymouth, Old Town Street

PLYMOUTH
DATA

The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History

PLYMOUTH ROADS AND STREETS

Old Town_Street.gif (3996 bytes)

LM-Bedford Street 480.jpg (25527 bytes)

Location

Old Town Street ran northwards from the eastern end of Bedford Street, opposite St Andrew's Church, to the junction with Duke Street, after which became Tavistock Road. It was part of the main route to Tavistock.

Principal buildings

The principal buildings on the western side of Old Town Street in 1890 were:

Chubb's Hotel; the Old Town Mercantile Chambers; the Golden Lion Hotel; the Three Towns Bank; the Bedford Wine & Spirit Vaults; and the Post Office on the corner with Duke Street.

and on the eastern side were:

the Old Town Chambers; the Rose & Crown Public House; the Plymouth and Penzance Bank (Messrs Batten, Carne & Carne); the Old Four Castles Public House.

Old Town Street, Plymouth, looking north.

Old Town Street, Plymouth, looking northwards towards
Drake Circus.

Principal businesses

Old Town Street was also a main shopping thoroughfare. The principal businesses on the western side in 1890 were:

Spooner & Company, drapers; Rowse & Company, ironmongers; Hawken & Son, ironmongers; E Bonser & Son, tea merchants; George Oliver, boot & shoe manufacturer; Stidston & Company, drapers; Jacob Best, plumber; W Browning & Sons, tailors; and Henry H Whipple, bacon factor.

The principal businesses on the eastern side in 1890 were:

County Co-operative Drug Company, dispensing chemist; Balkwill & Company, chemists; Collier & Company, wine merchants; Butt, Vosper & Company, wholesale woollen merchants; John Smith, manufacturing stationer; Rundle, Rogers & Brook, Scotch (sic) and Manchester woollen merchants; Reginald James Bazley, bookseller; Hender & Sons, seedsmen; William Spear, general draper.

The only remaining part of Old Town Street, Plymouth, adjacent to St Andrew's Cross.

The only remaining part of the rebuilt Old Town Street,
Plymouth, is that adjoining St Andrew's Cross.

Old Town Street was flattened during the Second World War but was rebuilt in the 1950s, when it was still on the main route to Tavistock. Following the demolition of Drake Circus in the 1970s, it was largely lost beneath the shopping development. Today only the southern end survives, up as far as Boot's the chemist.