Clickable map of central Exeter - not all links are yet fully activated
Walk 2. The High Street and around.
This walk takes us from Carfax, the historic crossing point of the roads leading from Exeter's four city gates, and follows the High Street towards the site of Eastgate, taking in streets between Northernhay and Southernhay and also Sidwell Street.
James Holman. High Street.
The blind traveller James Holman (1786–1857) was the fourth child of John Holman, a chemist and druggist of 187 High Street, Exeter at the corner with North Street. In 1832, he became the first blind person to circumnavigate the globe, and by October 1846 had visited every inhabited continent. His travel writings were extremely popular.
187 High Street, Exeter, birthplace of James Holman, the blind traveller.
High Street.
Many printers and booksellers have had their premises in the High Street over the centuries. The premises of Philip Bishop was at the sign of the Golden Bible over against the Guildhall from 1694 to 1712, later occupied by Andrew Brice and his partner and successor Barnabas Thorn in the 1770s. The controversial eighteenth century printer of the The old Exeter journal Andrew Brice had premises at various locations in the High Street and elsewhere in Exeter during his long career.
High Street, Exeter, from an engraving of 1829 in the Westcountry Studies Library (SC 984).
Gilbert Dyer. High Street.
The premises "over against" (opposite) the Guildhall, which appears in early imprints was presumably no. 56 where Gilbert Dyer (1743-1820), a learned antiquary, opened a circulating library and bookshop described in Hone's Yearbook in 1831 as "the choicest and perhaps the most extensive, of any in the whole kingdom, except in the metropolis". The bibliomaniac Thomas Frognal Dibdin in 1811 claims that "his catalogue of 1810 in two parts, containing 19,945 articles, has I think never been equalled by that of any provincial bookseller, for the value and singularity of the greater number of volumes described in it." The original building was destroyed by fire in 1881 and rebuilt in the present neo-gothic style.
56 High Street, Exeter, formerly the premises of Gilbert Dyer.
Charles Dickens. High Street.
As a young reporter, Charles Dickens covered the Exeter election in 1835. He regularly drank at the Turk’s Head Inn next to the Guildhall and characters in The Pickwick Papers (1836) were said to closely resemble the regulars. The little figure of the Turk's Head can still be seen above the present shop front.
Guildhall. High Street.
The Guildhall, the centre of Exeter's local government for centuries, housed the extensive collections of the City's archives until their removal to Exeter City Library in 1931. In the late 16th century the medieval records were sorted by the Chamberlain John Hooker who was also Exeter's first publisher, commissioning editions of his works on Exeter from London printers for local distribution and producing the earliest printed map of the city in 1587.
Exeter Guildhall and the former site of the Turk's Head inn.
Waterstones. High Street.
At 48-49 High Street Waterstones took over the premises of booksellers Sherrat and Hughes in 1991, and it remains open after Covid-19 in addition to their other High Street store at Roman Gate.
Watersone's premises in the High Street, Exeter.
Sir Thomas Bodley. High Street.
No. 229 is the birthplace of Sir Thomas Bodley, scholar, diplomat and founder of the Bodleian Library in Oxford. In 1602 he negotiated the removal of more than eighty medieval manuscripts from Exeter Cathedral Library to the university library that he had recently refounded. He is commemorated by a blue plaque erected by Exeter Civic Society. In the early 20th century the building was the premises of the Devon and Exeter Gazette, founded by Edward Woolmer in 1792. From 1900 to 1905 Jan Stewer (A. J. Coles) contributed a popular weekly dialect column "The talk at Uncle Tom Cobleigh's club" to the newspaper, which also published his collected articles in book form.
The birthplace of Sir Thomas Bodley, Exeter.
Exeter Flying Post office. High Street.
No. 226 was the office of Trewman's Exeter Flying Post. This newspaper was established in 1763 in competition with Andrew Brice's Old Exeter journal and survived until 1917. The publisher's file is held in the Westcountry Studies Library at the Devon Heritage Centre where there is a card index to the contents. The building was also the premises of the Western Times newspaper from 1906 to 1947.
The site of Trewman's Exeter Flying Post printing office.
Wheatons. High Street.
The High Street either side of Gandy Street was crowded with printers, publishers and booksellers in the early 20th century. Wheaton's had its bookselling and stationery businnes at 223-4 from 1897 to 1918, having moved there from Fore Street where their extensive publication of educational textbooks was initiated just before the the first World War.
James G. Commin. High Street.
No. 230 was the premises of the antiquarian bookseller James G. Commin from 1883 until World War 2. He was mayor of Exeter when the foundation stone of the University College of the South West was laid in 1909. Commin's regular catalogues were widely distributed, closely set booklets in two columns with 500 or more items in each - it issued its 500th catalogue in 1932. After the War it continued trading in the Cathedral Close.
The premises of the antiquarian bookseller James G. Commin, Exeter.
Gandy Street. Gandy Street.
Sir Thomas Bodley sits reading surrounded by his books on a mural at the entrance to Gandy Street, which also has its share of literary associations.
Mural depicting Sir Thomas Bodley, Gandy Street, Exeter.
Andrew Brice. Gandy Street.
Andrew Brice had his offices in Gandy Street at the sign of the Printing press from 1740 to 1744, one of many sites in Exeter where he worked between 1717 and his death in 1772.
Joanna Southcott. Gandy Street.
W. Symonds published some of the writings of the Exeter prophetess Joanna Southcott (1750-1814) in Gandy's Lane in the first years of the nineteenth century. Joanna's fame spread and she gained many followers, announcing at the age of 64 that she was pregnant and was to give birth to Shiloh, the new Messiah. Sets of her more than sixty publications are held in the Westcountry Studies Library and the rattle and baby shoes gifted to the new Messiah as well as other relics are in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum at the end of the street.
Delivering a prophetess, one of the satirical prints that circulated in the time of Joanna Southcott,
(Westcountry Studies Library)
Castle Bookshop. Gandy Street.
Mike Knott ran the Castle Bookshop in the street in the 1970s and 1980s, one of the few antiquarian bookshops in Exeter at that time.
J. K. Rowlings. Gandy Street.
J. K. Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, studied French and Classics at the University of Exeter, graduating in 1986. It has long been assumed that places in Exeter inspired locations in the Harry Potter novels, including Gandy Street which many think inspired Diagon Alley. Although Rowling denies this, the street is certainly bewitchingly quaint.
Gandy Street, Exeter, a source of literary inspiration.
Express and Echo. Gandy Street.
In 2015 the Express and echo returned to the city centre from Sowton Industrial Estate, opening its offices on the corner with Little Queen Street.
Offices of the Express and Echo, now Exeter's only regular printed newspaper.
W. H. Smith. Queen Street.
The Guildhall Shopping Centre houses W. H. Smith, one of several branches in Devon, including one at St David's Station. Before its move to the Guildhall Shopping Centre in the 1970s it had premsies for many years at 233 High Street. In 2021 it houses the central Post Office and a coffee shop.
Exeter Rare Books. Queen Street.
In the gallery above the Higher Market the Parry's, father and son, ran Exeter Rare Books until 2016 when Royston Parry died aged 90. The family had previously run the Dickens Centenary Bookshop in the Fore Street Arcade from 1973 to 1997.
Hugh Downman. Paul Street.
Hugh Downman (1740–1809), physician and poet, lived in Paul Street. He was was born in at Newton House, Exeter and was educated at Exeter Grammar School. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and then practised in Exeter. Besides many poems, he published a number of plays, helped to translate an edition of Voltaire’s works, and founded a literary society in Exeter in 1796. His best known poem was published between 1774 and 1776 with the title Infancy or the management of children: a poem in three books. Seven editions were published during his lifetime. Downman emphasised that “health is the greatest blessing man receives from bounteous Heaven” and that on “the management of these first years depends the future man”.
William Miles. Queen Street.
Queen Street ends at the Clock Tower which commemorates William Miles (1800–1881) who lived at 12a Dix's Field in 1881. He was a leading campaigner for animal welfare and the clock tower incorporates a drinking trough he had previously set up for the horses who toiled up and down Queen Street. He was also the author of a standard work on The horse's foot and how to keep it sound, published in London in 1846 by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman and in Exeter by Spreat and Wallis. It was printed by the Exeter firm of Pollard and went into several editions both in Britain and America.
The Clock Tower, Queen Street, Exeter.
Royal Albert Memorial Museum. Queen Street.
The Royal Albert Memorial was Exeter's prime cultural and heritage hub. In its early years, as well as a museum it also housed the free library and schools of science and art. The Museum's collections include many written items, from Exeter's earliest Roman inscriptions on tiles, potsherds and wall plaster to Civil War tracts and also works by local naturalists and geologists as well as publications relating to works of art in their collections.
The Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.
University College of the South West.
The University of Exeter originated as the Royal Albert Memorial College and the City Librarian served as college librarian in the early years. The Phoenix building was built in 1909 to serve the University College of South West England. The foundation stone bears the name of the Mayor, James G. Commin, the noted bookseller. The College's library was transferred from the City Library in 1933 and remained here until the Roborough Library was opened on the Streatham Campus in 1940.
Exeter Phoenix.
Exeter Library. Musgrave Row.
The former library building, dating from 1931, was designed by Exeter born Sidney Kyffin Greenslade (1867–1955) the same architect as the National Library of Wales. As well as the lending, reference and local studies libraries it also housed the city records, housed in a muniment room which survived the fire that raged after the 1942 blitz, destroying 100,000 volumes. After the war it housed the Devon Record Office and from 1975 the county's largest local studies collection. The Westcountry Studies Library moved from the city centre to Great Moor House in 2012 and the building was sold by Devon County Council and converted into 44 luxury student apartments known as the Library Lofts.
The former Exeter City Library, firebombed and gutted in 1942.
The present building dates from 1965 and, now run by Libraries Unlimited, it received 547,923 visits in 2019, making it the 18th most visited public library in Great Britain. Apart from its multimedia lending collections it houses historic collections of early printed volumes including an important collection of early children's books.
Exeter Central Library.
To the left of the entrance from Rougemont Gardens can be seen the back of the 1931 building. The first floor housed the Devon Record Office and the Westcountry Studies Library until they moved to Great Moor House.
Exeter Central Library, from Rougemont Gardens.
Exeter Castle. Castle Street.
This was the home of the Quarter Sessions and remained the seat of Devon county administration until 1964. The Devon Record Office was established in 1952 and the county's extensive archives are now held in the Devon Heritage Centre on Sowton Industrial Estate. During parliamentary elections the hustings were held here and local printers produced large quantities of election literature, much of it in verse, and also the results of the poll after each days polling.
Rougemont Castle, Exeter.
Exeter Riddle Sculpture.
A monument celebrating the riddles of the Exeter Book is to be found in the High Street opposite Bedford Street. It was created by Michael Fairfax in 2005.
The Exeter Riddle monument in the High Street.
New Theatre. Bedford Street.
The New Theatre was opened in Bedford Street in 1787 and operated until it was destroyed by fire in 1820. Its replacement, renamed the Theatre Royal in the 1830s was in turn gutted by fire in 1885.
The New Theatre, Bedford Street (Westcountry Studies Library)
Theatre Royal.
The new Theatre Royal was built by the Exeter Theatre Company to the designs of C. J. Phipps and opened in 1886. During a dramatisation of Romany Rye on 5 September 1887, the worst theatre fire in British history broke out backstage and 186 people died. There is a memorial to those who died in the fire in Higher Cemetery, Heavitree, made by local sculptor Harry Hems. The Theatre Royal was rebuilt, opening in 1889 with a performance of The Yeomen of the Guard by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. The Theatre Royal was closed in 1962 and demolished to be replaced by an office block.
Waterstones.
Waterstone's Roman Gate premises was built for Dillons in 1989 at 252, High Street on the site of an old cinema. It was the first shop in the Dillons chain to open with full computer technology and was taken over by Waterstones in the mid 1990s. There are two Waterstones bookshops in the High Street showing that its tradition as a centre of the Exeter book trade still continues.
Waterstones Roman Gate premises, Exeter.
Sidwell Street.
Situated outside Eastgate St Sidwells has had a number of book trade undertakings. Among printers the firm of Bearnes worked in various premises from the 1890s to the 1930s while W. Norton and son had premises at 81, Sidwell Street from 1851 to 1874 and at 185, Sidwell Street from 1878 to 1919. There were several circulating libraries: Caroline and later Catherine Horwill at 162 Sidwell Street from 1848 to 1858, J. Karslake, at 134 Sidwell Street from 1906 to 1919 and Chain Libraries Ltd at 50, Sidwell Street in the 1930s, continuing after the war in Princesshay until the 1960s. Among booksellers A. R. Jerman operated from 19 Sidwell Street from 1911 to 1923, Misses Dawe and Martin at 53, Sidwell Street from 1927 to 1935 and at 179 Sidwell Street from 1939 to1955.
George's Bookshop. Sidwell Street.
In January 1969 J. F. Blakey, who was born in Exeter and had been active in the book trade in there for 27 years, opened a new bookshop at 147 Sidwell Street which replaced a smaller shop which he had set up in 1966. It had a stock of 20,000 books but was able to call on far more than this as it had the backing of George's the long-standing Bristol bookshop with a stock of 250,000 volumes. By 1980 George's had taken over the business in its own name and was for several years the leading Exeter bookseller. On 4 February 1980 George's took over from Wheatons the Exeter agency for the 8,500 publications each year which then emanated from the government Stationery Office. At the end of 1984 it opened a second premises further down Sidwell Street at 167-168. However George's was not to survive long, largely because the Bristol firm was itself in difficulties. Fagins took over the premises at 167 Sidwell Street in 1989 and soon aroused interest with a display of banned books to draw attention to Salman Rushdie's novel Satanic verses. It continued to trade for only a few years.
Express and Echo. Sidwell Street.
The Express and Echo relocated from the High Street, printing presses and all, into the corner premises at 160 Sidwell Street in the 1970s. In 1992 the parent group moved the newspaper out of the city for the first time to Heron Road on the Sowton Industrial Estate. They returned to the city centre in 2015.
The former printing office of the Express and Echo, 160 Sidwell Street, Exeter.
Tapley-Soper Dix's Field
No 2 was the residence of the poet and historian Gwendoline E. Tapley-Soper (1885-1950) from at least 1929 to 1934. Her papers are in Exeter University Library's archives and the Devon Heritage Centre.
Sabine Baring-Gould. Southernhay.
Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924), a pioneering collector of folk songs of the West Country, prolific writer of novels, biographies, histories, and books on travel, folklore and religion is commemorated by an Exeter Civic Society blue plaque. Rector of Lewtrenchard in west Devon, he was born in Chichester Place, Southernhay.
The birthplace of Sabine Baring-Gould, Chicheter Place, Southernhay, Exeter.
Little Brother Books. Southernhay.
Baring-Gould may have been interested in popular literature but would his taste have extended to the publications of Little Brother Books, the UK's only specialist publisher dedicated to producing annuals for children? Their titles include The Barbie official annual and WWE official annual and they have been in Exeter since 2016.
23 Southernhay East, the registered office of Little Brother Books (Google street view).
Violet and Dame Irene Vanbrugh
Violet was born in 1867 at the Double House, 35/6 Southernhay Place, which was lost in World War 2 but close to the site of the Exeter Civic Society blue plaque. Her younger sister Irene, who also became a noted actress was born in Heavitree. Their father Reginald Henry Barnes was vicar of Heavitree.
Blue plaque to the actress sisters Violet and Dame Irene Vanbrugh (Exeter Civic Society).
Exeter Literary Society. Barnfield Hall.
Exeter's main amateur performance venue, was built by the Exeter Literary Society, an important and active organisation founded in 1841 which rivalled the Devon and Exeter Institution in its day. There is a history of the building on the Exeter Memories website
Barnfield Hall, Exeter.
Barnfield Hall, Exeter.
Barnfield Hall, Exeter.
This walk takes us from Carfax, the historic crossing point of the roads leading from Exeter's four city gates, and follows the High Street towards the site of Eastgate, taking in streets between Northernhay and Southernhay and also Sidwell Street.
James Holman. High Street.
The blind traveller James Holman (1786–1857) was the fourth child of John Holman, a chemist and druggist of 187 High Street, Exeter at the corner with North Street. In 1832, he became the first blind person to circumnavigate the globe, and by October 1846 had visited every inhabited continent. His travel writings were extremely popular.
187 High Street, Exeter, birthplace of James Holman, the blind traveller.
High Street.
Many printers and booksellers have had their premises in the High Street over the centuries. The premises of Philip Bishop was at the sign of the Golden Bible over against the Guildhall from 1694 to 1712, later occupied by Andrew Brice and his partner and successor Barnabas Thorn in the 1770s. The controversial eighteenth century printer of the The old Exeter journal Andrew Brice had premises at various locations in the High Street and elsewhere in Exeter during his long career.
High Street, Exeter, from an engraving of 1829 in the Westcountry Studies Library (SC 984).
Gilbert Dyer. High Street.
The premises "over against" (opposite) the Guildhall, which appears in early imprints was presumably no. 56 where Gilbert Dyer (1743-1820), a learned antiquary, opened a circulating library and bookshop described in Hone's Yearbook in 1831 as "the choicest and perhaps the most extensive, of any in the whole kingdom, except in the metropolis". The bibliomaniac Thomas Frognal Dibdin in 1811 claims that "his catalogue of 1810 in two parts, containing 19,945 articles, has I think never been equalled by that of any provincial bookseller, for the value and singularity of the greater number of volumes described in it." The original building was destroyed by fire in 1881 and rebuilt in the present neo-gothic style.
56 High Street, Exeter, formerly the premises of Gilbert Dyer.
Charles Dickens. High Street.
As a young reporter, Charles Dickens covered the Exeter election in 1835. He regularly drank at the Turk’s Head Inn next to the Guildhall and characters in The Pickwick Papers (1836) were said to closely resemble the regulars. The little figure of the Turk's Head can still be seen above the present shop front.
Guildhall. High Street.
The Guildhall, the centre of Exeter's local government for centuries, housed the extensive collections of the City's archives until their removal to Exeter City Library in 1931. In the late 16th century the medieval records were sorted by the Chamberlain John Hooker who was also Exeter's first publisher, commissioning editions of his works on Exeter from London printers for local distribution and producing the earliest printed map of the city in 1587.
Exeter Guildhall and the former site of the Turk's Head inn.
Waterstones. High Street.
At 48-49 High Street Waterstones took over the premises of booksellers Sherrat and Hughes in 1991, and it remains open after Covid-19 in addition to their other High Street store at Roman Gate.
Watersone's premises in the High Street, Exeter.
Sir Thomas Bodley. High Street.
No. 229 is the birthplace of Sir Thomas Bodley, scholar, diplomat and founder of the Bodleian Library in Oxford. In 1602 he negotiated the removal of more than eighty medieval manuscripts from Exeter Cathedral Library to the university library that he had recently refounded. He is commemorated by a blue plaque erected by Exeter Civic Society. In the early 20th century the building was the premises of the Devon and Exeter Gazette, founded by Edward Woolmer in 1792. From 1900 to 1905 Jan Stewer (A. J. Coles) contributed a popular weekly dialect column "The talk at Uncle Tom Cobleigh's club" to the newspaper, which also published his collected articles in book form.
The birthplace of Sir Thomas Bodley, Exeter.
Exeter Flying Post office. High Street.
No. 226 was the office of Trewman's Exeter Flying Post. This newspaper was established in 1763 in competition with Andrew Brice's Old Exeter journal and survived until 1917. The publisher's file is held in the Westcountry Studies Library at the Devon Heritage Centre where there is a card index to the contents. The building was also the premises of the Western Times newspaper from 1906 to 1947.
The site of Trewman's Exeter Flying Post printing office.
Wheatons. High Street.
The High Street either side of Gandy Street was crowded with printers, publishers and booksellers in the early 20th century. Wheaton's had its bookselling and stationery businnes at 223-4 from 1897 to 1918, having moved there from Fore Street where their extensive publication of educational textbooks was initiated just before the the first World War.
James G. Commin. High Street.
No. 230 was the premises of the antiquarian bookseller James G. Commin from 1883 until World War 2. He was mayor of Exeter when the foundation stone of the University College of the South West was laid in 1909. Commin's regular catalogues were widely distributed, closely set booklets in two columns with 500 or more items in each - it issued its 500th catalogue in 1932. After the War it continued trading in the Cathedral Close.
The premises of the antiquarian bookseller James G. Commin, Exeter.
Gandy Street. Gandy Street.
Sir Thomas Bodley sits reading surrounded by his books on a mural at the entrance to Gandy Street, which also has its share of literary associations.
Mural depicting Sir Thomas Bodley, Gandy Street, Exeter.
Andrew Brice. Gandy Street.
Andrew Brice had his offices in Gandy Street at the sign of the Printing press from 1740 to 1744, one of many sites in Exeter where he worked between 1717 and his death in 1772.
Joanna Southcott. Gandy Street.
W. Symonds published some of the writings of the Exeter prophetess Joanna Southcott (1750-1814) in Gandy's Lane in the first years of the nineteenth century. Joanna's fame spread and she gained many followers, announcing at the age of 64 that she was pregnant and was to give birth to Shiloh, the new Messiah. Sets of her more than sixty publications are held in the Westcountry Studies Library and the rattle and baby shoes gifted to the new Messiah as well as other relics are in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum at the end of the street.
Delivering a prophetess, one of the satirical prints that circulated in the time of Joanna Southcott,
(Westcountry Studies Library)
Castle Bookshop. Gandy Street.
Mike Knott ran the Castle Bookshop in the street in the 1970s and 1980s, one of the few antiquarian bookshops in Exeter at that time.
J. K. Rowlings. Gandy Street.
J. K. Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, studied French and Classics at the University of Exeter, graduating in 1986. It has long been assumed that places in Exeter inspired locations in the Harry Potter novels, including Gandy Street which many think inspired Diagon Alley. Although Rowling denies this, the street is certainly bewitchingly quaint.
Gandy Street, Exeter, a source of literary inspiration.
Express and Echo. Gandy Street.
In 2015 the Express and echo returned to the city centre from Sowton Industrial Estate, opening its offices on the corner with Little Queen Street.
Offices of the Express and Echo, now Exeter's only regular printed newspaper.
W. H. Smith. Queen Street.
The Guildhall Shopping Centre houses W. H. Smith, one of several branches in Devon, including one at St David's Station. Before its move to the Guildhall Shopping Centre in the 1970s it had premsies for many years at 233 High Street. In 2021 it houses the central Post Office and a coffee shop.
Exeter Rare Books. Queen Street.
In the gallery above the Higher Market the Parry's, father and son, ran Exeter Rare Books until 2016 when Royston Parry died aged 90. The family had previously run the Dickens Centenary Bookshop in the Fore Street Arcade from 1973 to 1997.
Hugh Downman. Paul Street.
Hugh Downman (1740–1809), physician and poet, lived in Paul Street. He was was born in at Newton House, Exeter and was educated at Exeter Grammar School. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and then practised in Exeter. Besides many poems, he published a number of plays, helped to translate an edition of Voltaire’s works, and founded a literary society in Exeter in 1796. His best known poem was published between 1774 and 1776 with the title Infancy or the management of children: a poem in three books. Seven editions were published during his lifetime. Downman emphasised that “health is the greatest blessing man receives from bounteous Heaven” and that on “the management of these first years depends the future man”.
William Miles. Queen Street.
Queen Street ends at the Clock Tower which commemorates William Miles (1800–1881) who lived at 12a Dix's Field in 1881. He was a leading campaigner for animal welfare and the clock tower incorporates a drinking trough he had previously set up for the horses who toiled up and down Queen Street. He was also the author of a standard work on The horse's foot and how to keep it sound, published in London in 1846 by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman and in Exeter by Spreat and Wallis. It was printed by the Exeter firm of Pollard and went into several editions both in Britain and America.
The Clock Tower, Queen Street, Exeter.
Royal Albert Memorial Museum. Queen Street.
The Royal Albert Memorial was Exeter's prime cultural and heritage hub. In its early years, as well as a museum it also housed the free library and schools of science and art. The Museum's collections include many written items, from Exeter's earliest Roman inscriptions on tiles, potsherds and wall plaster to Civil War tracts and also works by local naturalists and geologists as well as publications relating to works of art in their collections.
The Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.
University College of the South West.
The University of Exeter originated as the Royal Albert Memorial College and the City Librarian served as college librarian in the early years. The Phoenix building was built in 1909 to serve the University College of South West England. The foundation stone bears the name of the Mayor, James G. Commin, the noted bookseller. The College's library was transferred from the City Library in 1933 and remained here until the Roborough Library was opened on the Streatham Campus in 1940.
Exeter Phoenix.
Exeter Library. Musgrave Row.
The former library building, dating from 1931, was designed by Exeter born Sidney Kyffin Greenslade (1867–1955) the same architect as the National Library of Wales. As well as the lending, reference and local studies libraries it also housed the city records, housed in a muniment room which survived the fire that raged after the 1942 blitz, destroying 100,000 volumes. After the war it housed the Devon Record Office and from 1975 the county's largest local studies collection. The Westcountry Studies Library moved from the city centre to Great Moor House in 2012 and the building was sold by Devon County Council and converted into 44 luxury student apartments known as the Library Lofts.
The former Exeter City Library, firebombed and gutted in 1942.
The present building dates from 1965 and, now run by Libraries Unlimited, it received 547,923 visits in 2019, making it the 18th most visited public library in Great Britain. Apart from its multimedia lending collections it houses historic collections of early printed volumes including an important collection of early children's books.
Exeter Central Library.
To the left of the entrance from Rougemont Gardens can be seen the back of the 1931 building. The first floor housed the Devon Record Office and the Westcountry Studies Library until they moved to Great Moor House.
Exeter Central Library, from Rougemont Gardens.
Exeter Castle. Castle Street.
This was the home of the Quarter Sessions and remained the seat of Devon county administration until 1964. The Devon Record Office was established in 1952 and the county's extensive archives are now held in the Devon Heritage Centre on Sowton Industrial Estate. During parliamentary elections the hustings were held here and local printers produced large quantities of election literature, much of it in verse, and also the results of the poll after each days polling.
Rougemont Castle, Exeter.
Exeter Riddle Sculpture.
A monument celebrating the riddles of the Exeter Book is to be found in the High Street opposite Bedford Street. It was created by Michael Fairfax in 2005.
The Exeter Riddle monument in the High Street.
New Theatre. Bedford Street.
The New Theatre was opened in Bedford Street in 1787 and operated until it was destroyed by fire in 1820. Its replacement, renamed the Theatre Royal in the 1830s was in turn gutted by fire in 1885.
The New Theatre, Bedford Street (Westcountry Studies Library)
Theatre Royal.
The new Theatre Royal was built by the Exeter Theatre Company to the designs of C. J. Phipps and opened in 1886. During a dramatisation of Romany Rye on 5 September 1887, the worst theatre fire in British history broke out backstage and 186 people died. There is a memorial to those who died in the fire in Higher Cemetery, Heavitree, made by local sculptor Harry Hems. The Theatre Royal was rebuilt, opening in 1889 with a performance of The Yeomen of the Guard by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. The Theatre Royal was closed in 1962 and demolished to be replaced by an office block.
Waterstones.
Waterstone's Roman Gate premises was built for Dillons in 1989 at 252, High Street on the site of an old cinema. It was the first shop in the Dillons chain to open with full computer technology and was taken over by Waterstones in the mid 1990s. There are two Waterstones bookshops in the High Street showing that its tradition as a centre of the Exeter book trade still continues.
Waterstones Roman Gate premises, Exeter.
Sidwell Street.
Situated outside Eastgate St Sidwells has had a number of book trade undertakings. Among printers the firm of Bearnes worked in various premises from the 1890s to the 1930s while W. Norton and son had premises at 81, Sidwell Street from 1851 to 1874 and at 185, Sidwell Street from 1878 to 1919. There were several circulating libraries: Caroline and later Catherine Horwill at 162 Sidwell Street from 1848 to 1858, J. Karslake, at 134 Sidwell Street from 1906 to 1919 and Chain Libraries Ltd at 50, Sidwell Street in the 1930s, continuing after the war in Princesshay until the 1960s. Among booksellers A. R. Jerman operated from 19 Sidwell Street from 1911 to 1923, Misses Dawe and Martin at 53, Sidwell Street from 1927 to 1935 and at 179 Sidwell Street from 1939 to1955.
George's Bookshop. Sidwell Street.
In January 1969 J. F. Blakey, who was born in Exeter and had been active in the book trade in there for 27 years, opened a new bookshop at 147 Sidwell Street which replaced a smaller shop which he had set up in 1966. It had a stock of 20,000 books but was able to call on far more than this as it had the backing of George's the long-standing Bristol bookshop with a stock of 250,000 volumes. By 1980 George's had taken over the business in its own name and was for several years the leading Exeter bookseller. On 4 February 1980 George's took over from Wheatons the Exeter agency for the 8,500 publications each year which then emanated from the government Stationery Office. At the end of 1984 it opened a second premises further down Sidwell Street at 167-168. However George's was not to survive long, largely because the Bristol firm was itself in difficulties. Fagins took over the premises at 167 Sidwell Street in 1989 and soon aroused interest with a display of banned books to draw attention to Salman Rushdie's novel Satanic verses. It continued to trade for only a few years.
Express and Echo. Sidwell Street.
The Express and Echo relocated from the High Street, printing presses and all, into the corner premises at 160 Sidwell Street in the 1970s. In 1992 the parent group moved the newspaper out of the city for the first time to Heron Road on the Sowton Industrial Estate. They returned to the city centre in 2015.
The former printing office of the Express and Echo, 160 Sidwell Street, Exeter.
Tapley-Soper Dix's Field
No 2 was the residence of the poet and historian Gwendoline E. Tapley-Soper (1885-1950) from at least 1929 to 1934. Her papers are in Exeter University Library's archives and the Devon Heritage Centre.
Sabine Baring-Gould. Southernhay.
Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924), a pioneering collector of folk songs of the West Country, prolific writer of novels, biographies, histories, and books on travel, folklore and religion is commemorated by an Exeter Civic Society blue plaque. Rector of Lewtrenchard in west Devon, he was born in Chichester Place, Southernhay.
The birthplace of Sabine Baring-Gould, Chicheter Place, Southernhay, Exeter.
Little Brother Books. Southernhay.
Baring-Gould may have been interested in popular literature but would his taste have extended to the publications of Little Brother Books, the UK's only specialist publisher dedicated to producing annuals for children? Their titles include The Barbie official annual and WWE official annual and they have been in Exeter since 2016.
23 Southernhay East, the registered office of Little Brother Books (Google street view).
Violet and Dame Irene Vanbrugh
Violet was born in 1867 at the Double House, 35/6 Southernhay Place, which was lost in World War 2 but close to the site of the Exeter Civic Society blue plaque. Her younger sister Irene, who also became a noted actress was born in Heavitree. Their father Reginald Henry Barnes was vicar of Heavitree.
Blue plaque to the actress sisters Violet and Dame Irene Vanbrugh (Exeter Civic Society).
Exeter Literary Society. Barnfield Hall.
Exeter's main amateur performance venue, was built by the Exeter Literary Society, an important and active organisation founded in 1841 which rivalled the Devon and Exeter Institution in its day. There is a history of the building on the Exeter Memories website
Barnfield Hall, Exeter.
Barnfield Hall, Exeter.
Barnfield Hall, Exeter.
This page last updated 8 September 2021
