Clickable map of central Exeter - not all links are yet fully activated
Walk 1. The Cathedral Close and the West Quarter.
This walk takes us from the Cathedral Close, where Exeter's literary life started more than a millennium ago, into South Street and down to the Quay and Exe Bridge. It returns through the site of the West Gate and up Fore Street, ending at Carfax, the historic crossing point of the roads leading from Exeter's four city gates.
Exeter Cathedral Library. Palace Gate.
Our walk starts in front of a library collection almost a millennium old which holds some of the earliest examples of Exeter's literary heritage, notably the Exeter Book of Anglo-Saxon poetry, dating from around 970 and the Exon Domesday, dating from 1086. The historical display inside the entrance is well worth a visit during the Library's opening hours. The Library contains medieval manuscripts, early printed books and modern published texts on a remarkable range of subjects including theology, medicine, science and local history. Until the 19th century it was the City's only significant library. The Archives contain unique original records documenting the history of the Cathedral and its Dean & Chapter including the buildings, people and former estates across Devon and Cornwall. For more details see the Exeter Cathedral website.
Exeter Cathedral Library.
Exeter Cathedral's Medieval Library. North Cloisters.
In 1412 the Cathedral Library was rehoused in the north range of the cloisters which it is planned to rebuild. In 1506 the 400 illuminated manuscripts were chained to eleven reading desks, and lists of the contents of each desk survive. It is to be hoped that space will be found for at least one reconstructed desk in the rebuilt cloisters. This could provide a virtual display of some of the more than eighty manuscripts removed to Oxford for Sir Thomas Bodley's new library in 1602.
Site of north cloisters and medieval cathedral library
Plan showing reconstructed elevation of the north cloisters, Exeter Cathedral.
Old Deanery. Cathedral Close.
There was no permanent printing press at work in Exeter until 1698 with the exception of the King's printers Barker and Bill who passed through during the Civil War in 1645 and the printer J. B., probably John Bringhurst, that William of Orange brought with him on his way from Brixham to London in 1688. The press seems to have been set up in the Old Deanery where William stayed. A later literary link with the Deanery is provided by a satirical dialect poem The royal visit to Exeter by Kingsbridge poet Peter Pindar (1738-1819), commemorating the vist of King George III on 13 August 1789. Apparently the Bishop was unable to entertain the King:
Old Deanery, Exeter, where William of Orange is said to have had his printing press
Romano-British graffiti. Cathedral Close.
The area in front of the Cathedral was the site of the Roman legionary bath-house, and a first-century tile used in the hypocaust bears the earliest evidence of literacy in Exeter (then named Isca Dumnoniorum). Along the top edge are the first letters of the Roman alphabet: ABCDIIFF. The tile is now in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. Other local evidence of literacy includes graffiti on fragments of wall plaster, and stamped names on pottery. Vespasian, Exeter's first royal visitor (although not yet emperor) is commemorated by an inscribed Roman coin on one of the medallions set into the pathway. At the entrances to the churchyard carved quotations by John Donne and others reinforce the literary atmosphere.
Tile from hypocaust of Roman legionary bath-house with first letters of alphabet
(Royal Albert memorial Museum).
Cathedral Close.
Like St Paul's Churchyard in London, Saint Peter's Churchyard was an early centre for the book trades. Exeter's first publisher Martin Coeffin is recorded in the parish of Saint Martin in 1522 and it is most likely that his premises fronted onto the Cathedral Close. Some of Exeter's earliest printers also had their premises here, Samuel Farley in 1714, Philip Bishop from 1713 to 1716 and George Bishop from 1718 to 1722, but the precise location of their premises has not always been ascertained.
Saint Peter's Churchyard in the 18th century as shown on the Hedgeland model in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Robert Trewman. Cathedral Close.
A more recent Exeter printer is immortalised in the ironwork of the bridge crossing over the passageway from the Close to Southernhay. Robert Trewman (1767-1816) was not only the receiver of Exeter in 1814 but he was also the printer of the Exeter flying post newspaper which was founded by his father in 1763.
The iron bridge with Robert Trewman's name.
Anthony Trollope. Cathedral Close.
The red house by the iron bridge, no. 15, was used by Anthony Trollope as the residence of the redoubtable Jemima Stanbury in his novel He knew he was right, published in 1869. She "believed in Exeter, thinking that there was no other town in provincial England in which a maiden lady could live safely and decently".
15 Cathedral Close, used as a setting for Trollope's novel: He knew he was right.
Royal Clarence Hotel. Cathedral Yard.
The Royal Clarence Hotel has literary links with Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (1897). It was from here that Jonathan Harker, a recently admitted solicitor from Exeter who is deputed by his employer Mr. Hawkins to act as an estate agent for a foreign client named Count Dracula, sets out on his journey to Transylvania. The Exeter setting is a recognition of Bram Stoker's having found inspiration for the description of Count Dracula in Sabine Baring-Gould's Book of werewolves and his vampire novel Margery of Quether. Another source for information on Transylvania is his brother Major George Stoker (1854-1920) who had an extensive army medical career and pioneered the use of oxygen in surgery. After travelling through Eastern Europe he came to live with Bram Stoker, at a time when he was writing and researching Dracula. George’s stories about his travels and the people he met might have informed the novel. George Stoker wrote of his experiences in With ‘the Unspeakables’; or, two years campaigning in European and Asiatic Turkey (London : Chapman and Hall, 1878).
Royal Clarence Hotel, 2015, before the fire.
Devon and Exeter Institution. Cathedral Close.
This prime example of Exeter's literary heritage, the first significant library to be established in Exeter after the Cathedral Library is located at no. 7, Cathedral Close. An independent library and community education charity, it was established in 1813 as a library and museum for its subscribers. It can claim Exeter's first female librarian – Eliza Squance beat twenty male applicants for the position in 1849. The library with its atmosphere of a 19th century gentleman's club has rich collections of literature relating to Exeter and Devon and has a busy progamme of events. For more details, see its website.
Devon and Exeter Institution
Exeter Law Library. Cathedral Close.
The building next door to the Devon and Exeter Institution on the right also housed an historic library. The Exeter Law Library was founded for practising members of the legal profession in 1833, and was housed for many years from the end of the 19th century in the magnificent medieval hall with its hammer-beam roof. The library was dispersed in the late twentieth century.
The site of the Exeter Law Library
Mol's Coffee House. Cathedral Close.
Mol's Coffee house at 1 Cathedral Close is the sole surviving example of an early coffee house in Exeter, although it has been much modified over the centuries. Coffee houses, known as "penny universities" were important centres for reading newspapers and periodicals and for lively discussion on all topics. It was therefore very appropriate that in about 1708 the printer Joseph Bliss should set up his press at the back of the Exchange Coffee House in St Peter's Churchyard, near the post office where he printed his newspaper Jos. Bliss's Exeter post boy. The building served as a coffee house from 1726 to 1832 under a series of female proprietors. In 1833 Exeter artist John Gendall moved into the premises as a teacher, landscape painter, carver and gilder. Gendall died in 1865 and Mol's was taken over by Henry Hodge, bookbinders, stationers and gilders, followed by Thomas Burnett Worth (1827-93) from 1878. Worth's Gallery printed postcards, guidebooks and other material about Exeter. Worth's closed in 1958 and was replaced by the Fred Keetch Gallery. From 1997 to 2006 it was the premises of Eland Brothers, a firm that had been founded in Exeter in 1870. They were the local agents for large-scale Ordnance Survey mapping.
Mol's Coffee House, Exeter.
Charlotte Elizabeth Treadwin. Cathedral Close.
Charlotte Elizabeth Treadwin (1820-1890) was a leading expert on Honiton lace. From 1848 to 1868 her business was based at 27 Cathedral Yard, now part of Pizza Express. She moved her premises to 5 Cathedral Close in 1868, where she built up a clientèle that included Queen Victoria and the Princess of Wales. She presented a collection of Devon lace to the newly opened Royal Albert Memorial Museum. Her knowledge on the history of Honiton lace became so extensive that she published a well-illustrated book, in 1873, entitled Antique point and Honiton lace : containing plain and explicit instructions for making, transferring, and cleaning laces of every description ; with about one hundred illustrations, outlines, and prickings of the principal antique point stitches and Honiton sprigs. She is buried in the Higher Cemetery.
No. 5 Cathedral Close, one of the premises of Charlotte Treadwin.
SPCK Bookshop. Cathedral Close.
The SPCK bookshop stood on the corner of Catherine Street and Martin's Lane from the 1960s to the 1990s. Specialising in religious books and gifts, it also housed a general antiquarian stock of books on the top floor.
The site of the SPCK Bookshop.
Richard Hooker. Cathedral Close.
The Anglican theologian and writer Richard Hooker (1554-1600) is commemorated by a statue in the Close. He was the nephew of the Exeter antiquary and Chamberlain John Hooker who brought him up. He is best kown for his weighty Laws of ecclesiastical polity which advocates a more tolerant version of Protestantism for the Church of England. His writings are also celebrated at his birthplace in Heavitree.
Statue of Richard Hooker in the Cathedral Close, Exeter.
Richard Dodderidge Blackmore. Exeter Cathedral.
In Exeter Cathedral there is a memorial to the novelist Richard Dodderidge Blackmore (1825-1900) who was educated at Blundell's School, Tiverton and lived his early years in north Devon near Exmoor, a region he immortalised in his novel Lorna Doone. The monument was unveiled in 1904 by fellow novelist Eden Phillpotts, who was a great admirer of Blackmore. Apparently, this was the only public engagement in which Phillpotts ever participated. The famous Bishop Phillpotts ('Henry of Exeter') was his great uncle. The Westcountry Studies Library has several of Blackmore's manuscripts.
Memorial to Richard Dodderidge Blackmore in Exeter Cathedral
John Horden. Exeter Cathedral.
There is a monumental brass in Exeter Cathedral to Bishop John Horden (1828-1893). He was born in Exeter, the son of William Horden, a printer. He was the first Anglican Bishop of Moosonee, Ontario. For more than 40 years the Bishop led services there in Cree, Inuit and other languages of his parishioners. He studies to become a schoolmaster and learned to read Latin and Greek. He offered his services to the Church Missionary Society, hoping to go to India. This was unsuccessful but in 1851 CMS contacted him again, because they had received a request from the Bishop of Rupert’s Land to fill the position of school teacher at Moose Factory, which was set up by the Hudson Bay Company. After Horden had been out there for a year or so, the Bishop of Rupert’s Land visited Moosonee ordained him as a priest. Horden continued to translate prayer books, Gospels, and other religious texts into the Cree language, and he sent the drafts to England to be printed. But they could not read Cree, so instead they sent the drafts back, along with a printing press, so that Horden could print his own publications. In 1872 he was consecrated Bishop.He continued to travel widely and to publish books in Cree. He is probably best known for his Grammar of the Cree language. He died in 1893 and was buried at Moose Factory. Sources: Dictionary of Canadian biography.
Monumental brass to Bishop John Horden in Exeter Cathedral
Philip Bishop. Cathedral Yard.
Philip Bishop had his printing office "in the house where Mr Quash lately kept the post office" from 1714 to 1717. Joseph Quash had rebuilt what is now 21 Cathedral Yard in 1697 and was postmaster there until his bankruptcy in 1712. A later literary link with the building is provided by the SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge), who ran its bookshop there from 1906 to 1953.
Site of the Post Office, later Philip Bishop's printing office.
Joseph Bliss. Cathedral Yard.
To the east (right) of the post office ran the alley known as Little Exchange, which ended between 49 and 51 High Street. The printer Andrew Brice wrote in 1752: "Here, as on a sort of Change [Exchange], almost daily, do Gentlemen, Merchants, and Chief Traders, walking take Meridian Air, and talk of Business or of News, perhaps or laugh at merry Tale, till infallible St. Peter, with one warning stroke, sends them with whetted Appetites to Dinner." Some would then have adjourned to the Exchange Coffee House, probably situated at no. 20 on the other corner of Little Exchange. It was in this hub of news and gossip that Joseph Bliss installed his newspaper press in 1708, located in the back part of the coffee house, to print his Exeter Post Boy until about 1711.
Waterstones. Cathedral Yard.
The back entrance to Waterstones was opened onto the Cathedral Yard at no. 19 in 1991.
Elizabeth Williamson. Cathedral Yard.
No 17 also had a series of book-related occupants. From 1858 to 1879 Elizabeth Williamson ran a bookshop and stationers and also operated a servants' registry. She was succeeded from 1879 to 1898 by Walter Scanes, who also continued the servants' registry, and from 1899 to 1906 by H. E. Marson. Throughout this period, from 1858 to 1907, the premises also housed the Devon and Exeter Religious Book and Tract Society.
Charles Elkin Mathews. Cathedral Yard.
The publisher Charles Elkin Mathews (1851-1921) who played an important role in the literary life of London in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had first set up his business as an antiquarian bookseller at no. 16 in 1884. Together with Devonian bibliophile John Lane he set up in 1887 the Bodley Head, a publishing house named after Thomas Bodley who was born in Exeter's High Street. Walter Scanes, extended his premises into no. 16 after Elkin Mathews departure for London.
James G. Commin. Cathedral Yard.
In the midst of World War 2 the antiquarian bookseller James G. Commin moved to 16 Cathedral Yard from his High Street premises in 1943. In January 1963 their 680th and last catalogue was issued by the proprietor Harold Commin with 685 items including a collection of Westcountry titles.
The foundation stone of the University College of the South West laid by J.G.Commin the year he was mayor.
Webb and Bower. Cathedral Close.
The Three Gables was the premises of publishers Webb and Bower in the 1980s where they published the best-selling title The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady in 1977, a facsimile of the manuscript "Nature notes for 1906" compiled by Edith Holden (1871-1920). Their shop was awash with a wide range of linked merchandise.
The Three Gables, Cathedral Close, Exeter.
Thomas Benet. Little Stile.
We leave the Close through the site of Little Stile gate where in 1530 a boy posting up a placard was arrested, leading to religious reformer Thomas Benet's trial and execution in 1531.
John Hooker's 16th century map of the Cathedral precints with the gates named.
Besley family. South Street.
The premises of the printers and publishers Thomas and Henry Besley were at 76, Bell Hill, South street from 1825 to 1875 and 89, South Street from 1876 to 1942. They were best known as publishers of local guide books and engraved topographical prints from the 1840s to the 1870s, capitalising on the arrival of the railways which opened Exeter and Devon to tourism, and also printed annual directories of Exeter for almost a century. The firm of Besley and Copp still print local guides from their current premises on Sowton Industrial Estate.
The route book of Devon,
one of many local guides issued by the Besley firm.
Oxfam Bookshop. South Street.
97-98 South Street has been the premises of the Oxfam Bookshop since the 1980s. South Street contains two of the best charity bookshops in Exeter, the other being a few doors further down the street on the same side.
Oxfam Bookshop, Exeter.
Hospiscare Bookshop. South Street.
84 South Street houses the bookshop of Hospiscare, a charity formed in 1982 with two community nurses. The hospice was opened in 1992. They are an Exeter based local, independent charity which provides high quality care and support to people with a progressive life-limiting illness and those close to them living in Exeter, East and Mid Devon. Their shop is an Aladdin's cave of bibliophilic delight.
Hospiscare Book and Vintage Shop, Exeter
The Hospiscare Men's Walk in 2021 was the spur to set out on this literary peregrination.
Big Issue. South Street.
Just by the site of the South Gate, where debtors werre imprisoned, 53 South St houses the offices of one of the five regional editions of The Big issue, a periodical to assist the homeless which was founded in 1991. It is a continuation of the tradition of street vendors of literature that extends back more than four centuries in Devon.
The Big Issue office, Exeter.
Bookcycle. West Street
Book-Cycle at 7 West Street, near the medieval church of St Mary Steps is a charity which seeks to empower children worldwide through the provision of free books and educational resources. At the bookshop you can choose to pay what you like for up to 3 items per day. There are also mini Book-Cycle centres in shops, cafes and surgeries across Exeter. See the charity's Website.
Bookcycle charity bookshop, Exeter.
The House that Moved. West Street
This medieval building, which was moved on rails out of the line of Western Way, was the subject of a novel by Exeter author David Rees (1936-1993), The house that moved (1978). A lecturer in education at the University of Exeter, he was the author of several other novels set locally including The Exeter blitz (1978) which won the 1978 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British writer and The ferryman set during the 1832 cholera epidemic. The milkman's on his way (1982), set in Bude, aroused controversy by discussing the experience of gays with a teenage audience, while The estuary (1983) on the same theme is set partly on the Exe Estuary.
The House the Moved, Exeter (Google street view).
Drystones. West Street
Drystones with its large bookish painting in the shop window at 12 West Street has been recorded by Google Streetview since 2008. It seemed to be active as a bookshop in 2010 according to a walker's blog, when it was speculated that the name was inspired by Waterstones. The bookish mural by Rick Pringle was still present when the shop was passed on the Hospiscare walk in 2021, but there was no sign of activity. Does anyone know more about Drystones?
Drystones mural, West Street
Quay Words. Custom House.
Situated on Exeter's historic quay, the Custom House contains a tourist information centre, where literature relating to the city can be obtained, and also Quay Words. This project, run by Literature Works and Exeter Canal and Quay Trust is supported by funding from Arts Council England, National Lottery Project funding and a grant from Exeter Canal and Quay Trust. Quay Words showcases literature as a diverse art form with a wide range of events, and is a central pillar of Exeter’s successful bid to gain UNESCO City of Literature status. See the Quay Words website/
Custom House, home of Quay Words
Ted Hughes. Exe Bridge
The church of Saint Edmund, whose tower remains on the surviving arches of the medieval Exe Bridge, has a little-known literary link. The poet Ted Hughes claimed to a friend that he was largely responsible for saving what remains of the structure. Seeing demolition in progress when the inner bypass was constructed around 1973 he enquired about obtaining some of the Heavitree stone. Apparently this aroused interest in the structure and demolition ceased shortly after. Ted Hughes asked his friend to spread the word about his involvement in saving St Edmunds so the opportunity is being taken to do so in this guide.
St Edmund's Church on medieval Exe Bridge.
Western Times Office. Fore Street.
The splendid 18th century mansion at 143 Fore Street is notable in Exeter's literary heritage on two counts. Thomas Latimer, 1803-1888 the campaigning radical journalist set up his premises here about 1840. He got his first job as a reporter in Exeter, on The Devonshire Chronicle and Exeter News, a weekly paper campaigning for the Whig cause of parliamentary reform from 1827 to 1828. He worked in Plymouth for the Plymouth and Plymouth Dock weekly journal. Returning to Exeter in 1830, he had a brief spell with the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, being dismissed for his radical views in 1831. From 1831 Latimer was acting editor of the Western Times, published from this building. Latimer knew Charles Dickens who stayed with him in the house, which has an Exeter Civic Society blue plaque.
143 Fore Street, Exeter, site of the Western Times office and later Wheaton's bookshop.
Wheatons. Fore Street.
From 1905 the house became the premises of Wheaton's, the prolific publishers of school text books. Wheaton's business finally closed at Hennock Road Marsh Barton Industrial Estate in 2017.
George Oliver. Mint.
The Mint has a commemorative plaque to George Oliver (1781-1861), the Catholic priest and historian who wrote The lives of the bishops of Exeter and also a history of Exeter.
Mint Press Mint.
The Mint Press was established by Todd Gray at 18 The Mint in 2000 to publish books on the history and heritage of Devon and Exeter. Some fifty titles were published in the first twenty years drawing richly on the libraries and archives in Exeter and across the country. His titles are distributed by Stevens Books.
The site where Exeter's Mint Press was established.
Wheatons. Fore Street
At the corner of Fore Street and North Street the booksellers and publishers of educational textbooks Wheaton and Sons had their premises at nos 185-186 from 1846 to 1905 when they moved to 143 Fore Street.
185-186 Fore Street, Exeter, formerly the premises of Wheatond, printers and booksellers.
William Pollard. North Street
The printers William Pollard & Co., founded at the end of the 18th century, had premises at several addresses in North Street from 1818 to 1942: no.86 1828-1848; no. 96 1850; no. 58 1870-1874; nos. 39-40 1878-1919. They moved to Southernhay Gardens from 1935 to 1975 and later to the Sowton Industrial Estate where they continue today.
North Street, Exeter, where the printing firm of William Pollard operated for many years (Google street view).
This walk takes us from the Cathedral Close, where Exeter's literary life started more than a millennium ago, into South Street and down to the Quay and Exe Bridge. It returns through the site of the West Gate and up Fore Street, ending at Carfax, the historic crossing point of the roads leading from Exeter's four city gates.
Exeter Cathedral Library. Palace Gate.
Our walk starts in front of a library collection almost a millennium old which holds some of the earliest examples of Exeter's literary heritage, notably the Exeter Book of Anglo-Saxon poetry, dating from around 970 and the Exon Domesday, dating from 1086. The historical display inside the entrance is well worth a visit during the Library's opening hours. The Library contains medieval manuscripts, early printed books and modern published texts on a remarkable range of subjects including theology, medicine, science and local history. Until the 19th century it was the City's only significant library. The Archives contain unique original records documenting the history of the Cathedral and its Dean & Chapter including the buildings, people and former estates across Devon and Cornwall. For more details see the Exeter Cathedral website.
Exeter Cathedral Library.
Exeter Cathedral's Medieval Library. North Cloisters.
In 1412 the Cathedral Library was rehoused in the north range of the cloisters which it is planned to rebuild. In 1506 the 400 illuminated manuscripts were chained to eleven reading desks, and lists of the contents of each desk survive. It is to be hoped that space will be found for at least one reconstructed desk in the rebuilt cloisters. This could provide a virtual display of some of the more than eighty manuscripts removed to Oxford for Sir Thomas Bodley's new library in 1602.
Site of north cloisters and medieval cathedral library
Plan showing reconstructed elevation of the north cloisters, Exeter Cathedral.
Old Deanery. Cathedral Close.
There was no permanent printing press at work in Exeter until 1698 with the exception of the King's printers Barker and Bill who passed through during the Civil War in 1645 and the printer J. B., probably John Bringhurst, that William of Orange brought with him on his way from Brixham to London in 1688. The press seems to have been set up in the Old Deanery where William stayed. A later literary link with the Deanery is provided by a satirical dialect poem The royal visit to Exeter by Kingsbridge poet Peter Pindar (1738-1819), commemorating the vist of King George III on 13 August 1789. Apparently the Bishop was unable to entertain the King:
Now down long Vorestreet did they come,
Zum hollowin' and screechin zum:
Now tridg'd they to the Dean's;
Becaze the Bishop zent mun word
A could not meat and drink avoord,
A hadn't got the means.
Well: to the Dean's bounce in they went,
And all the day in munchin' spent;
And guzlin too, no doubt:
And while the gentry drink'd within,
The mob wey brandy, ale, and gin,
Got roarin drunk without.
Old Deanery, Exeter, where William of Orange is said to have had his printing press
Romano-British graffiti. Cathedral Close.
The area in front of the Cathedral was the site of the Roman legionary bath-house, and a first-century tile used in the hypocaust bears the earliest evidence of literacy in Exeter (then named Isca Dumnoniorum). Along the top edge are the first letters of the Roman alphabet: ABCDIIFF. The tile is now in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. Other local evidence of literacy includes graffiti on fragments of wall plaster, and stamped names on pottery. Vespasian, Exeter's first royal visitor (although not yet emperor) is commemorated by an inscribed Roman coin on one of the medallions set into the pathway. At the entrances to the churchyard carved quotations by John Donne and others reinforce the literary atmosphere.
Tile from hypocaust of Roman legionary bath-house with first letters of alphabet
(Royal Albert memorial Museum).
Cathedral Close.
Like St Paul's Churchyard in London, Saint Peter's Churchyard was an early centre for the book trades. Exeter's first publisher Martin Coeffin is recorded in the parish of Saint Martin in 1522 and it is most likely that his premises fronted onto the Cathedral Close. Some of Exeter's earliest printers also had their premises here, Samuel Farley in 1714, Philip Bishop from 1713 to 1716 and George Bishop from 1718 to 1722, but the precise location of their premises has not always been ascertained.
Saint Peter's Churchyard in the 18th century as shown on the Hedgeland model in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Robert Trewman. Cathedral Close.
A more recent Exeter printer is immortalised in the ironwork of the bridge crossing over the passageway from the Close to Southernhay. Robert Trewman (1767-1816) was not only the receiver of Exeter in 1814 but he was also the printer of the Exeter flying post newspaper which was founded by his father in 1763.
The iron bridge with Robert Trewman's name.
Anthony Trollope. Cathedral Close.
The red house by the iron bridge, no. 15, was used by Anthony Trollope as the residence of the redoubtable Jemima Stanbury in his novel He knew he was right, published in 1869. She "believed in Exeter, thinking that there was no other town in provincial England in which a maiden lady could live safely and decently".
15 Cathedral Close, used as a setting for Trollope's novel: He knew he was right.
Royal Clarence Hotel. Cathedral Yard.
The Royal Clarence Hotel has literary links with Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (1897). It was from here that Jonathan Harker, a recently admitted solicitor from Exeter who is deputed by his employer Mr. Hawkins to act as an estate agent for a foreign client named Count Dracula, sets out on his journey to Transylvania. The Exeter setting is a recognition of Bram Stoker's having found inspiration for the description of Count Dracula in Sabine Baring-Gould's Book of werewolves and his vampire novel Margery of Quether. Another source for information on Transylvania is his brother Major George Stoker (1854-1920) who had an extensive army medical career and pioneered the use of oxygen in surgery. After travelling through Eastern Europe he came to live with Bram Stoker, at a time when he was writing and researching Dracula. George’s stories about his travels and the people he met might have informed the novel. George Stoker wrote of his experiences in With ‘the Unspeakables’; or, two years campaigning in European and Asiatic Turkey (London : Chapman and Hall, 1878).
Royal Clarence Hotel, 2015, before the fire.
Devon and Exeter Institution. Cathedral Close.
This prime example of Exeter's literary heritage, the first significant library to be established in Exeter after the Cathedral Library is located at no. 7, Cathedral Close. An independent library and community education charity, it was established in 1813 as a library and museum for its subscribers. It can claim Exeter's first female librarian – Eliza Squance beat twenty male applicants for the position in 1849. The library with its atmosphere of a 19th century gentleman's club has rich collections of literature relating to Exeter and Devon and has a busy progamme of events. For more details, see its website.
Devon and Exeter Institution
Exeter Law Library. Cathedral Close.
The building next door to the Devon and Exeter Institution on the right also housed an historic library. The Exeter Law Library was founded for practising members of the legal profession in 1833, and was housed for many years from the end of the 19th century in the magnificent medieval hall with its hammer-beam roof. The library was dispersed in the late twentieth century.
The site of the Exeter Law Library
Mol's Coffee House. Cathedral Close.
Mol's Coffee house at 1 Cathedral Close is the sole surviving example of an early coffee house in Exeter, although it has been much modified over the centuries. Coffee houses, known as "penny universities" were important centres for reading newspapers and periodicals and for lively discussion on all topics. It was therefore very appropriate that in about 1708 the printer Joseph Bliss should set up his press at the back of the Exchange Coffee House in St Peter's Churchyard, near the post office where he printed his newspaper Jos. Bliss's Exeter post boy. The building served as a coffee house from 1726 to 1832 under a series of female proprietors. In 1833 Exeter artist John Gendall moved into the premises as a teacher, landscape painter, carver and gilder. Gendall died in 1865 and Mol's was taken over by Henry Hodge, bookbinders, stationers and gilders, followed by Thomas Burnett Worth (1827-93) from 1878. Worth's Gallery printed postcards, guidebooks and other material about Exeter. Worth's closed in 1958 and was replaced by the Fred Keetch Gallery. From 1997 to 2006 it was the premises of Eland Brothers, a firm that had been founded in Exeter in 1870. They were the local agents for large-scale Ordnance Survey mapping.
Mol's Coffee House, Exeter.
Charlotte Elizabeth Treadwin. Cathedral Close.
Charlotte Elizabeth Treadwin (1820-1890) was a leading expert on Honiton lace. From 1848 to 1868 her business was based at 27 Cathedral Yard, now part of Pizza Express. She moved her premises to 5 Cathedral Close in 1868, where she built up a clientèle that included Queen Victoria and the Princess of Wales. She presented a collection of Devon lace to the newly opened Royal Albert Memorial Museum. Her knowledge on the history of Honiton lace became so extensive that she published a well-illustrated book, in 1873, entitled Antique point and Honiton lace : containing plain and explicit instructions for making, transferring, and cleaning laces of every description ; with about one hundred illustrations, outlines, and prickings of the principal antique point stitches and Honiton sprigs. She is buried in the Higher Cemetery.
No. 5 Cathedral Close, one of the premises of Charlotte Treadwin.
SPCK Bookshop. Cathedral Close.
The SPCK bookshop stood on the corner of Catherine Street and Martin's Lane from the 1960s to the 1990s. Specialising in religious books and gifts, it also housed a general antiquarian stock of books on the top floor.
The site of the SPCK Bookshop.
Richard Hooker. Cathedral Close.
The Anglican theologian and writer Richard Hooker (1554-1600) is commemorated by a statue in the Close. He was the nephew of the Exeter antiquary and Chamberlain John Hooker who brought him up. He is best kown for his weighty Laws of ecclesiastical polity which advocates a more tolerant version of Protestantism for the Church of England. His writings are also celebrated at his birthplace in Heavitree.
Statue of Richard Hooker in the Cathedral Close, Exeter.
Richard Dodderidge Blackmore. Exeter Cathedral.
In Exeter Cathedral there is a memorial to the novelist Richard Dodderidge Blackmore (1825-1900) who was educated at Blundell's School, Tiverton and lived his early years in north Devon near Exmoor, a region he immortalised in his novel Lorna Doone. The monument was unveiled in 1904 by fellow novelist Eden Phillpotts, who was a great admirer of Blackmore. Apparently, this was the only public engagement in which Phillpotts ever participated. The famous Bishop Phillpotts ('Henry of Exeter') was his great uncle. The Westcountry Studies Library has several of Blackmore's manuscripts.
Memorial to Richard Dodderidge Blackmore in Exeter Cathedral
John Horden. Exeter Cathedral.
There is a monumental brass in Exeter Cathedral to Bishop John Horden (1828-1893). He was born in Exeter, the son of William Horden, a printer. He was the first Anglican Bishop of Moosonee, Ontario. For more than 40 years the Bishop led services there in Cree, Inuit and other languages of his parishioners. He studies to become a schoolmaster and learned to read Latin and Greek. He offered his services to the Church Missionary Society, hoping to go to India. This was unsuccessful but in 1851 CMS contacted him again, because they had received a request from the Bishop of Rupert’s Land to fill the position of school teacher at Moose Factory, which was set up by the Hudson Bay Company. After Horden had been out there for a year or so, the Bishop of Rupert’s Land visited Moosonee ordained him as a priest. Horden continued to translate prayer books, Gospels, and other religious texts into the Cree language, and he sent the drafts to England to be printed. But they could not read Cree, so instead they sent the drafts back, along with a printing press, so that Horden could print his own publications. In 1872 he was consecrated Bishop.He continued to travel widely and to publish books in Cree. He is probably best known for his Grammar of the Cree language. He died in 1893 and was buried at Moose Factory. Sources: Dictionary of Canadian biography.
Monumental brass to Bishop John Horden in Exeter Cathedral
Philip Bishop. Cathedral Yard.
Philip Bishop had his printing office "in the house where Mr Quash lately kept the post office" from 1714 to 1717. Joseph Quash had rebuilt what is now 21 Cathedral Yard in 1697 and was postmaster there until his bankruptcy in 1712. A later literary link with the building is provided by the SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge), who ran its bookshop there from 1906 to 1953.
Site of the Post Office, later Philip Bishop's printing office.
Joseph Bliss. Cathedral Yard.
To the east (right) of the post office ran the alley known as Little Exchange, which ended between 49 and 51 High Street. The printer Andrew Brice wrote in 1752: "Here, as on a sort of Change [Exchange], almost daily, do Gentlemen, Merchants, and Chief Traders, walking take Meridian Air, and talk of Business or of News, perhaps or laugh at merry Tale, till infallible St. Peter, with one warning stroke, sends them with whetted Appetites to Dinner." Some would then have adjourned to the Exchange Coffee House, probably situated at no. 20 on the other corner of Little Exchange. It was in this hub of news and gossip that Joseph Bliss installed his newspaper press in 1708, located in the back part of the coffee house, to print his Exeter Post Boy until about 1711.
Waterstones. Cathedral Yard.
The back entrance to Waterstones was opened onto the Cathedral Yard at no. 19 in 1991.
Elizabeth Williamson. Cathedral Yard.
No 17 also had a series of book-related occupants. From 1858 to 1879 Elizabeth Williamson ran a bookshop and stationers and also operated a servants' registry. She was succeeded from 1879 to 1898 by Walter Scanes, who also continued the servants' registry, and from 1899 to 1906 by H. E. Marson. Throughout this period, from 1858 to 1907, the premises also housed the Devon and Exeter Religious Book and Tract Society.
Charles Elkin Mathews. Cathedral Yard.
The publisher Charles Elkin Mathews (1851-1921) who played an important role in the literary life of London in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had first set up his business as an antiquarian bookseller at no. 16 in 1884. Together with Devonian bibliophile John Lane he set up in 1887 the Bodley Head, a publishing house named after Thomas Bodley who was born in Exeter's High Street. Walter Scanes, extended his premises into no. 16 after Elkin Mathews departure for London.
James G. Commin. Cathedral Yard.
In the midst of World War 2 the antiquarian bookseller James G. Commin moved to 16 Cathedral Yard from his High Street premises in 1943. In January 1963 their 680th and last catalogue was issued by the proprietor Harold Commin with 685 items including a collection of Westcountry titles.
The foundation stone of the University College of the South West laid by J.G.Commin the year he was mayor.
Webb and Bower. Cathedral Close.
The Three Gables was the premises of publishers Webb and Bower in the 1980s where they published the best-selling title The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady in 1977, a facsimile of the manuscript "Nature notes for 1906" compiled by Edith Holden (1871-1920). Their shop was awash with a wide range of linked merchandise.
The Three Gables, Cathedral Close, Exeter.
Thomas Benet. Little Stile.
We leave the Close through the site of Little Stile gate where in 1530 a boy posting up a placard was arrested, leading to religious reformer Thomas Benet's trial and execution in 1531.
John Hooker's 16th century map of the Cathedral precints with the gates named.
Besley family. South Street.
The premises of the printers and publishers Thomas and Henry Besley were at 76, Bell Hill, South street from 1825 to 1875 and 89, South Street from 1876 to 1942. They were best known as publishers of local guide books and engraved topographical prints from the 1840s to the 1870s, capitalising on the arrival of the railways which opened Exeter and Devon to tourism, and also printed annual directories of Exeter for almost a century. The firm of Besley and Copp still print local guides from their current premises on Sowton Industrial Estate.
The route book of Devon,
one of many local guides issued by the Besley firm.
Oxfam Bookshop. South Street.
97-98 South Street has been the premises of the Oxfam Bookshop since the 1980s. South Street contains two of the best charity bookshops in Exeter, the other being a few doors further down the street on the same side.
Oxfam Bookshop, Exeter.
Hospiscare Bookshop. South Street.
84 South Street houses the bookshop of Hospiscare, a charity formed in 1982 with two community nurses. The hospice was opened in 1992. They are an Exeter based local, independent charity which provides high quality care and support to people with a progressive life-limiting illness and those close to them living in Exeter, East and Mid Devon. Their shop is an Aladdin's cave of bibliophilic delight.
Hospiscare Book and Vintage Shop, Exeter
The Hospiscare Men's Walk in 2021 was the spur to set out on this literary peregrination.
Big Issue. South Street.
Just by the site of the South Gate, where debtors werre imprisoned, 53 South St houses the offices of one of the five regional editions of The Big issue, a periodical to assist the homeless which was founded in 1991. It is a continuation of the tradition of street vendors of literature that extends back more than four centuries in Devon.
The Big Issue office, Exeter.
Bookcycle. West Street
Book-Cycle at 7 West Street, near the medieval church of St Mary Steps is a charity which seeks to empower children worldwide through the provision of free books and educational resources. At the bookshop you can choose to pay what you like for up to 3 items per day. There are also mini Book-Cycle centres in shops, cafes and surgeries across Exeter. See the charity's Website.
Bookcycle charity bookshop, Exeter.
The House that Moved. West Street
This medieval building, which was moved on rails out of the line of Western Way, was the subject of a novel by Exeter author David Rees (1936-1993), The house that moved (1978). A lecturer in education at the University of Exeter, he was the author of several other novels set locally including The Exeter blitz (1978) which won the 1978 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British writer and The ferryman set during the 1832 cholera epidemic. The milkman's on his way (1982), set in Bude, aroused controversy by discussing the experience of gays with a teenage audience, while The estuary (1983) on the same theme is set partly on the Exe Estuary.
The House the Moved, Exeter (Google street view).
Drystones. West Street
Drystones with its large bookish painting in the shop window at 12 West Street has been recorded by Google Streetview since 2008. It seemed to be active as a bookshop in 2010 according to a walker's blog, when it was speculated that the name was inspired by Waterstones. The bookish mural by Rick Pringle was still present when the shop was passed on the Hospiscare walk in 2021, but there was no sign of activity. Does anyone know more about Drystones?
Drystones mural, West Street
Quay Words. Custom House.
Situated on Exeter's historic quay, the Custom House contains a tourist information centre, where literature relating to the city can be obtained, and also Quay Words. This project, run by Literature Works and Exeter Canal and Quay Trust is supported by funding from Arts Council England, National Lottery Project funding and a grant from Exeter Canal and Quay Trust. Quay Words showcases literature as a diverse art form with a wide range of events, and is a central pillar of Exeter’s successful bid to gain UNESCO City of Literature status. See the Quay Words website/
Custom House, home of Quay Words
Ted Hughes. Exe Bridge
The church of Saint Edmund, whose tower remains on the surviving arches of the medieval Exe Bridge, has a little-known literary link. The poet Ted Hughes claimed to a friend that he was largely responsible for saving what remains of the structure. Seeing demolition in progress when the inner bypass was constructed around 1973 he enquired about obtaining some of the Heavitree stone. Apparently this aroused interest in the structure and demolition ceased shortly after. Ted Hughes asked his friend to spread the word about his involvement in saving St Edmunds so the opportunity is being taken to do so in this guide.
St Edmund's Church on medieval Exe Bridge.
Western Times Office. Fore Street.
The splendid 18th century mansion at 143 Fore Street is notable in Exeter's literary heritage on two counts. Thomas Latimer, 1803-1888 the campaigning radical journalist set up his premises here about 1840. He got his first job as a reporter in Exeter, on The Devonshire Chronicle and Exeter News, a weekly paper campaigning for the Whig cause of parliamentary reform from 1827 to 1828. He worked in Plymouth for the Plymouth and Plymouth Dock weekly journal. Returning to Exeter in 1830, he had a brief spell with the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, being dismissed for his radical views in 1831. From 1831 Latimer was acting editor of the Western Times, published from this building. Latimer knew Charles Dickens who stayed with him in the house, which has an Exeter Civic Society blue plaque.
143 Fore Street, Exeter, site of the Western Times office and later Wheaton's bookshop.
Wheatons. Fore Street.
From 1905 the house became the premises of Wheaton's, the prolific publishers of school text books. Wheaton's business finally closed at Hennock Road Marsh Barton Industrial Estate in 2017.
George Oliver. Mint.
The Mint has a commemorative plaque to George Oliver (1781-1861), the Catholic priest and historian who wrote The lives of the bishops of Exeter and also a history of Exeter.
Mint Press Mint.
The Mint Press was established by Todd Gray at 18 The Mint in 2000 to publish books on the history and heritage of Devon and Exeter. Some fifty titles were published in the first twenty years drawing richly on the libraries and archives in Exeter and across the country. His titles are distributed by Stevens Books.
The site where Exeter's Mint Press was established.
Wheatons. Fore Street
At the corner of Fore Street and North Street the booksellers and publishers of educational textbooks Wheaton and Sons had their premises at nos 185-186 from 1846 to 1905 when they moved to 143 Fore Street.
185-186 Fore Street, Exeter, formerly the premises of Wheatond, printers and booksellers.
William Pollard. North Street
The printers William Pollard & Co., founded at the end of the 18th century, had premises at several addresses in North Street from 1818 to 1942: no.86 1828-1848; no. 96 1850; no. 58 1870-1874; nos. 39-40 1878-1919. They moved to Southernhay Gardens from 1935 to 1975 and later to the Sowton Industrial Estate where they continue today.
North Street, Exeter, where the printing firm of William Pollard operated for many years (Google street view).
This page last updated 8 September 2021
