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ROADS AND STREETS IN OLD PLYMOUTH - A-Z INDEX

TREVILLE STREET

Butchers' Lane and Lower Broad Street, shown here on Benjamin Donn's map of Plymouth in 1765, became Treville Street.

Treville Street can be seen in this map in relation to Bilbury Street, Briton Side and Exeter Street.

Treville Street ran eastwards from the junction with Old Town Street to Bilbury Street (formerly Lower Broad Street), Buckwell Street (formerly Higher Broad Street) and Norley Street.  It later absorbed Bilbury Street.

It was Jonathan Couch, a Cornish doctor and naturallist, who recorded in 1840 that the Street took its name from Mr Richard Trevill (sic),  a merchant in the Town during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.  In an effort to remove the pilchard trade from London-based merchants he erected pilchard cellars at Cawsand and Kingsand c1597 and exported "fairmaids" (pilchards) to Bordeaux, Rochelle, Naples and Spain.

Although a Town Rental of 1706 records the existence of Treville street, at the time of Benjamin Donn's plan of Plymouth in 1765 it was known as Butchers Lane.  It has been suggested that this was where the butchers put up their stalls on market days in the 17th century, when the market was held in the streets around the Guildhall at the top of High Street.

At the bottom (east) end of the Lane was the Butchers' Arms, 'a great resort for farmers of inordinate drinking capacity'.

Bilbury Street was later absorbed into Treville Street.  Its most prominent building was the Quakers' Hall built for the Religious Society of Friends and which survived the Blitz.

Treville Street was the border between the parish of Charles (north side) and Saint Andrew's (south side).

Mr Edward Stanley Gibbons (1840-1913), the founder of philately, was born in Treville Street in 1840.

Up until the Second World War the junction of Treville Street with Old Town Street was known for being the busiest junction in Plymouth and consequently became the location of Plymouth's first set of traffic lights.

Only a few buildings were left standing after the Second World War.  Those shown in the photograph below are from left to right, Messrs Leslie T Mutton, butchers; Mrs E Coleman, grocers; Mr Frederick George Mayhew, dairyman (who seems to have sold 'Noted Ices' as well); Mrs E Rowland, fishmonger. 

Numbers 52 to 58 Treville Street in 1942.
Vauxhall Street is on the left and the wall of Treville Street School is on the right.
The shops in 1939 are listed above.
Note the old style triangular "Bus Stop By Request" sign in the right foreground.
© National Monuments Record.

The Spread Eagle Inn was demolished in 1956, when the Certified After Damage Value was £3,250.

Numbers 45 and 46 Treville Street, otherwise known as The King's Head Public House, 1942.
The boarded-up former Plymouth Co-operative Society store was at number 47.
© National Monuments Record.

The only original buildings that now remain are the King's Head Public House and what was the Treville Street Board School.

For the Occupants of Butchers' Lane (Treville Street) in 1812 CLICK HERE.

For the Occupants of Treville Street in 1852 CLICK HERE.