OLD DEVONPORT . UK
www.olddevonport.uk
 

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth
Webpage created: November 16, 2017
Webpage updated: December 29, 2018

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ROADS AND STREETS IN OLD DEVONPORT

SAINT AUBYN STREET

Saint Aubyn Street ran southwards from Fore Street to Cumberland Street.

St Aubyn Street 1765.

The Donn map of 1765 shows Saint Aubyn Street with no properties.

The Saint Aubyn family were the Lords of the Manor and owners of the parish of Stoke Damerel.

They acquired the Manor when Sir William Morice, Baronet, died in 1749.  He had no heirs so his estate passed through his sister, Catherine, to her husband, Sir John Saint Aubyn, of Clowance, in Cornwall.

St Aubyn and Chapel Streets, Devonport.

The three barrack squares are now one Raglan Barracks and
both Saint Aubyn Street and Chapel Street have been completed.

Saint Aubyn Street appears on Benjamin Donn's map of 1765 but was apparently not a through route at that time as it is shown ending at the rear of buildings in Duke Street.  It should be noted that it was so new that it had no buildings.

Number 1 Saint Aubyn Street was the birthplace in February 1804 of Mr Samuel Phelps, who forty years later became the actor/manager of the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London.

Numbers 40 to 42 Saint Aubyn Street, Devonport, 1942.
© National Monuments Record (RCHM(E)).

On May 6th 1910 number 49 Saint Aubyn Street was opened as the Board of Trade's Devonport's Labour Exchange.  The manager was Mr J Lastridge and the premises had two rooms on the ground floor for the men and two rooms on the first floor where the women, girls and boys were dealt with.

Licensed Landmarks in the Street in 1914 included the Wine and Spirit Vaults Public House (number 15); the Carlton Inn (17); the Saint Aubyn Wine and Spirit Vault Stores (38).

At number 1, on the east side, on the corner with Fore Street, was the chemist, Mr William Montagu Martin, while opposite him, on the western side of Saint Aubyn Street were Messrs Graves and Sons, house furnishers.  The Coliseum Cinematograph Theatre, owned by Mrs Annie Stein, was at number 50, on the west side near Barrack Street.  Her husband, Michael, ran a cap manufacturing business at number 21.  The well-known architects, Messrs Thornely, Rooke and Barron and Mr Henry J Snell, had offices at number 29.  The offices of the "Western Independent" newspaper were number 16.  Number 19 housed Messrs Gard and Company, solicitors, Mr Thomas George Boulden, the registrar of marriages for Devonport, Morice Town, Stoke and Ford; and Mr C B Stewart, the deputy registrar of marriages for the Devonport District.  The Devonport Borough Treasurer's office was at number 37.  On the corner with Market Street, at numbers 56 and 57, was the Devonport and Western Counties Institution for the Blind, of which Mr E Ernest Gard was the honorary secretary in 1914.  There was a Pillar Letter Box on the corner of the east side of Saint Aubyn Street and Barrack Street.

In April 1930 Plymouth City Council planned to make Saint Aubyn Street one-way in conjunction with Chapel Street.  This was to be followed by the installation of traffic-lights at the junction with Fore Street.