Plymouthhistory

The prospect of a town extension being created over marshland was met with trepidation. The
town fathers favoured the development of the current safest route to Devonport; through King
Street, then along Stonehouse Lane and down High Street in Stonehouse itself, to the bridge
leading to the south-eastern gate of Devonport. Foulston was adamant however that he could
build across the marshland which was once known as the Sourpool, and he was soon proved
correct as the road itself, though devoid of buildings, was opened in 1815. By 1820, the
Stonehouse half of Union Street was complete and it was not long before the Plymouth end joined
up to it. During the 1820s, Union Street was in its prime, home to some of the district’s elite. But it
was not long before this new suburbia became part of the inner sanctum of the expanding urban
district.
In the 1830s, the first Millbay dock began construction. Then in 1840, Thomas Gill, who
owned the West Hoe Estate, established a pier and works at the mouth of Millbay and deepened
the seabed. This new dock attracted a great deal of interest from the unemployed labouring class
of the Three Towns and the back-streets and lanes around Union Street began to develop into
new neighbourhoods, physically joining Plymouth to Stonehouse. The problem though was that
the basements of the large houses and the new streets tended to flood as some were built below
sea-level. The flooding, along with the 1832 cholera outbreak, caused the wealthy inhabitants to
leave the area, which was still commonly known as “The Marsh”. By the mid-1840s, Millbay and
New Town were most certainly lower class neighbourhoods. The construction of the Great
Western Railway Line out from the docks also brought more of the labouring class to the area. At
this time, many Irish railway workers came and evidently settled with their families, although as
previously stated they were mainly confined to certain areas.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the entire conurbation was
overcrowded and dirty. Streets merged with each other, giving no
indication where one borough ended or began. Grand roads for the
wealthy wishing to escape the overcrowded centre, and workers’
housing, had almost doubled the geographical size of the urban area
within forty years. But underneath the glamour of the Theatre Royal and
wealthy mansions on the Hoe, and in the lanes behind the eminent
centres of learning, there were problems; prostitution, theft, and drinkrelated
violence occurred frequently.
During the middle decades of the century, a person wanting a drink in Plymouth did not have
to look very far. Even if he could not find a public house in the street where he stood, there
would probably be a beerhouse. These establishments could be owned by anyone who paid a
small fee to brew the beer, and were much easier to operate than a public house.