Longbrook Street

First named in the 13th century, the road takes its name from the land and stream that was owned by Gilbert and John Long. The brothers founded the St John's Hospital School in 1238.

During the 19th-Century, the use of thatch was discouraged in the city due to the fire risk. In 1852, an application by an elderly woman to repair the thatch on her two cottages in Longbrook Street was refused.

The Theatre Royal, which was demolished in 1962, was at the top of Longbrook Street. It was the second Theatre Royal on the site, the first burning down in September 1887 with the loss of 188 lives.

One of the earliest garages in Exeter was Shepherd's Garage, Longbrook Street. It is credited with installing the first petrol pumps in the city, around about 1920. The building was demolished in 2007. Next to Shepherd's Garage was the Horse and Groom beer house. Dating from 1740, it was probably the oldest inn to survive into the 20th-Century, as the Black Horse can only be dated to 1780. The Horse and Groom was demolished and rebuilt in June 1967. It is now King Billy. The Silent Woman beer house is completely forgotten now, but it was mentioned in the 1849 over a case of robbery where stolen goods found on the premises.

Further down the street on the same side is Hartnell's Fresh Foods, which can be traced back to 1890, with Hutchings and Son, butchers of Eastgate.

One of the most striking buildings in Longbrook Street is Harry's Restaurant, built by the indomitable Harry Hems in 1882, as his workshop. The building has a plaque stating that the nearby Longbrook was waded by William I and his army, when he besieged Exeter in 1068. The ford was replaced by a wooden bridge which was itself removed when the brook was culverted in 1832. It was the subject of several sewage laden floods through the 19th-Century.

World War One Dead - Longbrook Street

Private, Horace Baker, Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment). 4 October 1917. Age 22. Poltimore Square, Longbrook St
Private, Ernest Alfred Clow, Devonshire Regiment. 10 October 1917. Age 31. Poltimore Square, Longbrook St
Private, Theodore Ernest Gidley, Devonshire Regiment. 5 October 1918. Age 41. Park Rd., Longbrook St
Private, Frederick Lock, Devonshire Regiment. 9 August 1917. Age 20. Park Rd., Longbrook St
Private, W. A. (Victor) Quant, Royal Army Service Corps. 23 February 1919. Age 27, father at Poltimore Square

Longbrook Terrace

Private, Maurice Denis Reardon, Devonshire Regiment. 30 October 1914. Age 24. Castle Cottages, Longbrook Terrace
Corporal, G Yendall, Royal Field Artillery. 30 December 1917. Age 26. Longbrook Terrace