Local History The Notorious Crown Inn By Roderick Martin


IN previous articles I have mentioned the British Workman movement and the Temperance Hotel which reflected the good and virtuous side of Victorian Tavistock. However, there was a more decadent side, and the hostelry with by far the worst reputation was the notorious Crown Inn.


THE three-storey building, now residential accommodation, on the corner at the junction of the present Pym Street with Drake Road, looks a bit non-descript today but this was once the notorious Crown Inn. In about 1890 when the new Drake Road was built over Barley Market Street to provide access to the London and South Western Railway station the road level at the front of the building was raised to the height of the first floor. The ground floor entrance to the former inn, together with some of the cobbles from the old street, can now be seen below.


One can imagine the dilemma


faced during Victorian times by young gentlemen as they walked up Barley Market Street from Bank Square on their Friday night out. At this moral junction should they turn to the left into the Temperance Hotel at the foot of Kilworthy Hill and settle for an evening of soft


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drinks, meaningful conversation and educational enlightenment, or should they continue along the street and turn right into the Crown Inn for an evening of beer, music, dancing, and possibly much more. What do you think?


The origins of the inn goes back at least to the early 18th century


when a lease refers to a new property, the Crown and Cushion Inn, in Barley Market Street built by Richard Abbot. It was opened at a time when the commercial centre of the town was located around a number of busy produce markets in Lower and Upper Market Streets, Back Street and Bank Square. By 1800 the name of the inn seems to have been shortened to the Crown Inn. The 1830 Pigot’s Directory listed William Rowe as the tenant of the Crown Inn, and he continued pulling pints until his death in 1838. In the 1841 census the occupants of the inn were his widow Ann Rowe aged 45


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