OLD PLYMOUTH . UK
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©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth
Webpage created: February 10, 2019
Webpage updated: April 27, 2021

        

ROADS AND STREETS IN OLD PLYMOUTH - A-Z INDEX

WHIMPLE STREET

Whimple Street in 1765, with Evelegh's Guildhall and Pike Street.

Whimple Street linked Bedford Street with Looe Street, formerly Pike Street.

Wimple Street (1765),or Whimple Street (1820), ran from the Old Town Conduit eastwards to the old Guildhall at the top of Market Street, where it also joined Pike Street.

Numbers 20, 21 and 22 Whimple Street in June 1955.
Mr Stafford J Williams's original Magnet Cafe!
©  City of Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery.

As Wimple Street (sic) it was 'famous for the sale of whimples or women's hoods', claimed Whitfeld.  The earliest record is as Wympelstrete in April 1493.  Later references include Wympilstrete in 1518 and Whimplestrete in 1577.  It is included in the list of streets attached to the Town Rental of 1706, where it is referred to as where the fish market is held, and it is shown on Benjamin Donn's plan of Plymouth of 1765.  This possibly accounts for the reference in the lease and release of Mr John Pike's two messuages as being 'in Whimple Street alias Market Street'.  However, this may merely indicate that the properties were at the point where Whimple Street met Market Street.

Jewitt tells us that the building shown in the centre of the roadway on Donn's Plan is the "Fish Shambles" or "Fish Cage", which was erected in 1692.

Whitfeld tells us that it was at one time Plymouth's answer to Booksellers' Row.  He  also states that Benjamin Haydon, the artist, was born in the Street to Mr Benjamin Robert Haydon, a prosperous printer, publisher and stationer.

In October 1850 one Joseph Spooner was advertising fashions at number 26 Whimple Street, then known as "Tuscan House".

In July 1908 it was announced that the Great Western Railway Company were to open a town office in Whimple Street.  This later became the office for the Western National Omnibus Company Limited, whose motor bus services terminated at Saint Andrew's Cross, to the left of the picture above.

A century later, in September 1949, a Mr S J Williams, cafe owner, was paying rent of £300 per annum for the tenancy of numbers 21 and 22 Whimple Street.

Whimple Street was rather oddly numbered.  It started at the Old Guildhall Tavern at top of the High Street, ran along the south-western side to Saint Andrew Street, recommenced on opposite, on the corner of Old Town Street, and ran back along the north-eastern side as far as Kinterbury Street.  Then it went across Looe Street and included numbers 40 and 41 on the eastern side of High Street, at the top of Bull Hill.

Today only a small part of Whimple Street still exists and Gribbles the tailors are still there.  The ground floor of the Victoria Chambers, on the corner of Saint Andrew Street, right opposite Saint Andrew's Church, is a restaurant.

Curiously, no occupants were recorded living in Whimple Street in 1812.

For the Occupants of Whimple Street in 1852 CLICK HERE.

For the Occupants of Whimple Street in 1890 CLICK HERE.