Demolition at Magdalen Street & Holloway Street

The extended demolition of the South Gate area between 1962 and 1977 marked one of the most destructive phases in Exeter's 20th century history. Hardly a single bomb was dropped here during World War II and it largely escaped the catastrophic slum clearances of the pre-war years. The photograph left shows late Regency houses being demolished in Magdalen Street in 1964 © Express & Echo.

At South Gate the destruction of nearly all the historical structures in the area was a result of the inner bypass, a post-war ring road that now carves its way from the top of Sidwell Street, past South Gate, through the West Quarter and on towards Cowick Street and Alphington Street on the opposite side of the river. The scale of the destruction was immense as literally hundreds of pre-war townhouses, shops, courtyards, tenements, gardens and warehouses were bulldozed out of existence and replaced with what is now a multi-lane carriageway.

The clearance at South Gate alone involved the removal of much of Magdalen Street, most of Holloway Street, the whole of Quay Lane, a few surviving buildings at the bottom of South Street, and a large section of Exeter's city wall that had stood since the end of the second century AD. The Edwardian Exe Bridge, Alphington Street and Cowick Street fared little better.

What made the destruction at South Gate particularly unfortunate was its historical importance to the development of the city and the architectural significance of some of its buildings. Following the Exeter Blitz of 1942 it remained one of the Exeter's last intact historical cityscapes and a large number of the buildings dated to the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. The photograph above shows the view into Magdalen Street from the bottom of South Street in 1960 © Express & Echo. Nearly all of the houses shown dated from between c1659 and c1720, some with later mid 19th century facades. The photograph below shows the same view today.

As with almost everywhere in Exeter, South Gate has a very long recorded history. Sometimes shortened simply to Southgate, the area was the name given to the junction of South Street, Holloway Street and Magdalen Street where they met outside the great South Gate, itself demolished in 1819. The earliest artifact ever found in the city was recovered at Magdalen Street: a 250,000 year-old flint hand axe. The top of Holloway Street was the site of a Roman legionary cremation cemetery in the 1st centry AD and the Roman road between Topsham and Exeter terminated here. Now a small, picturesque town some four miles from Exeter, Topsham was the Second Augustan Legion's supply base. This route still exists, divided into Topsham Road and Holloway Street. Used by thousands of people every day, it runs in a characteristically straight line between Exeter and Topsham.

Magdalen Street, another road that ended at the South Gate, may also be Roman in origin. The main Roman route from Exeter to Dorchester is known to have run through Heavitree, about a mile outside Exeter. This road probably led originally to the Roman city's East Gate but it's likely that it forked before reaching the city walls with a spur running along Magdalen Road, Magdalen Street and into Exeter at the South Gate. The fork in the road is still present where Heavitree Road splits at what is now Livery Dole.

The image above attempts to show how the Roman roads converged on Exeter in the 3rd century AD. The perimeter of the Roman city walls is highlighted in red. The Exeter-Topsham service road used by the Second Augustan Legion cAD60 is highlighted in orange. The main Roman road from Exeter to Dorchester, ending at the East Gate (2), is highlighted in purple. The spur that forked at what is now Livery Dole (3), which comprised Magdalen Road and Magdalen Street, and which terminated at the South Gate (1) is highlighted in yellow. Except where it was destroyed outside the South Gate in the 1960s and 1970s, and where Paris Street was rerouted following post-war reconstruction, the road plan has remained essentially unchanged.

The image left shows the exterior of the South Gate from Holloway Street in the early 19th century. Magdalen Street runs off to the right. Although the gatehouse was demolished in 1819 the three 17th century timber-framed buildings to the left survived until they were demolished in the 1960s. The narrow entrance into Quay Lane was down the side of the nearest of the three houses.

Another ancient route that led into the area outside the South Gate was Quay Lane, used for hundreds of years to bring goods up into the city from the Quay. Built over the city's in-filled defensive ditch, Quay Lane was lined with small houses that backed onto the city wall, the variety and charm of its townscape the product of centuries of gradual evolution. In c1300 the Greyfriars of Exeter moved their friary from its site at Bartholomew Street inside the city to a large area outside the city walls just south of Holloway Street. Dissolved during the Reformation, some of the friary buildings survived until they were demolished during the English Civil War. The houses on Quay Lane were built within the precinct of the old friary and two roads south of Holloway Street are still known today as Friars Walk and Friars Gate.

The South Gate itself formed one of the main entrances in and out of Exeter. In 1452 Henry VI began a Royal Progress that reached Exeter on 17 July. Accompanied by 300 dignitaries from the city, he was met at Livery Dole by the monks from the city's Greyfriars' priory and Dominican friary. The king and his entourage then processed along Magdalen Road, Magdalen Street and into the city at the monumental South Gate which had been adorned especially for the occasion. Braun and Hogenberg's 1587 map of Exeter above right shows that a small medieval suburb had built up outside the South Gate in Magdalen Street and Holloway Street. Nicholas Smith's mansion of Larkbeare is shown as is Quay Lane and what are probably some of the remaining buildings of the Franciscan friary in the field at the bottom.

In the autumn of 1645, during the English Civil War, the city's Royalist defenders deliberately razed around 80 houses on the south side of Exeter to clear the ground outside the South Gate and to have an improved field of view for cannon and muskets. Most of the houses outside the city walls in the South Gate area, including many in Magdalen Street and Holloway Street, were affected. In his book, 'Two Thousand Years in Exeter', published in 1960 before the 20th century demolition of the area began, Hoskins wrote that "there are a number of gabled houses of late seventeenth-century date in Magdalen Street and Holloway Street. These houses are those that were built again after the war was over to replace those that had been destroyed."

By the end of the 17th century many of the battle-scarred plots had new houses built upon them. One of these was a three-storey, brick-built mansion, constructed in Magdalen Street for Thomas Matthew in 1659. Another significant property was known as Magdalen House, built for Dr Michael Dicker in the first decades of the 18th century. There was also the Valiant Soldier, an inn rebuilt in 1651 which stood on the corner of Holloway Street and Magdalen Street and which was named after those who fought and died during the English Civil War, and the Red Lion inn, its courtyard and timber-framed walls sketched by John Gendell in the 1830s

Benjamin Donn's 1765 map of the city left clearly shows Magdalen Street, Holloway Street and Quay Lane as they converge at the South Gate. It also shows that by the mid 18th century the area had recovered from the damage inflicted during the English Civil War. The evocative drawing below © Exeter City Council by Richard Parker appears on an information panel associated with the site of the South Gate. The drawing shows the junction of South Street, Magdalen Street and Holloway Street c1800. Magdalen House, with a classical pediment at roof level, can be seen on the far right.

Exeter historian Jacqueline Warren left a vivid description of one small part of Magdalen Street prior to its demolition: "Another of these Jacobean houses had a cobbled passage to a court from which a flight of stone steps led to the front doors of two dwellings. This was Bowden's Place, and in its happy, simple design, it had incredible charm. Beyond the first court, and past a fine, early nineteenth century iron gate was another little courtyard where a hefty sandstone buttress held the lower portion of a slate-hung house. The narrow cob-wall passage of one of the houses led to an alley from which could be seen the slightly sagging ridges of original slate roofs. Eventually, through this enchanting maze, one coud reach Holloway Street". Following the pre-war slum clearances, the bomb damage of 1942 and the destructive post-war reconstruction, the post-English Civil War houses around Southgate were some of the oldest domestic buildings still standing in Exeter outside of the Cathedral Close.

The image left shows the 1905 Ordnance Survey map of Exeter overlaid onto an aerial view of the same area today with the following numbering: 1 Site of the South Gate, 2 Quay Lane, 3 Magdalen House, 4 42-46 Magdalen Street, 5 The Valiant Solider Inn, 6 Magdalen Street, 7 Holloway Street, 8 Nos. 71-73 Holloway Street, 9 Site of Franciscan Friary. The route of the city wall is highlighted in purple. The buildings destroyed as a direct consequence of the inner bypass, well over 200 in total, are highlighted in red. Quay Lane was completely demolished, even though the bypass ran nowhere near it, as was most of Magdalen Street. Holloway Street was similarly decimated.

The pre-war aerial view right shows Holloway Street in the foreground running up to the former site of the South Gate (marked with a red arrow) and merging almost without a break into South Street. It shows how densely built-up the area was at the beginning of the 20th century. The majority of the buildings north of the red arrow were destroyed in pre-war slum clearances or during World War Two. The majority of the buildings south of the red arrow were destroyed during the creation of the inner bypass.

The inner bypass was initiated as early as 1949. It was designed to intercept heavy traffic arriving at Exeter from the east and bypass it across the river. In 1950 work began on surveying the proposed route between the top of Sidwell Street and Exe Bridge. Construction didn't commence at Belmont Park near Sidwell Street until 1953 and by 1960 the bypass had reached as far as Magdalen Bridge. 1962 saw the demolition of the Valiant Soldier inn and work started on continuing the bypass from Holloway Street to Exe Bridge.  By 1965 the bypass was complete but work continued on creating a gyratory road system near to the old West of England Eye Infirmary. The last demolitions didn't take place at South Gate until 1977 by which time the road system achieved its present form.

The photograph above shows the view across the junction of Magdalen Street and Holloway Street in the 1940s. The three gabled houses to the right from c1680 are the same ones visible in the early 19th century depiction of the South Gate but with slightly altered facades. The very narrorw entrance into Quay Lane was to the left of the left-hand house.

In his book 'Conservation Today', published in 1989, David Pearce discusses the implementation of so-called Dangerous Structures Notices used by English city councils in the 1960s and 1970s to get rid of inconveniently sited old buildings: "Council-owned, council-neglected then council-condemned was all too frequently the fate of listed structures impeding redevelopment". The idea was that the local authority would purchase a building, willfully neglect it and then issue a DNS on the structure when it was deemed either structurally unsafe or unfit for habitation. As Pearce says, "Exeter swept away splendid seventeenth century merchants' houses as if vying with Bristol to disfigure itself". The photograph below © Express & Echo shows Magdalen Street in the early 1960s when demolition had started in Holloway Street (in the background). The Valiant Soldier inn had already been bulldozed.

Pearce continues: "A building does not need to be neglected for many years before grounds can be discovered for declaring it unsafe, or at the very least unfit for habitation. A classic case occurred in 1977 in Exeter where the city council condemned and destroyed seventeenth and eighteenth century listed houses in Magdalen Street, containing particularly rare plasterwork, which it had originally bought (and then neglected) in connection with what even the local newspaper called 'megolomaniac' traffic schemes". (Another property that suffered the same fate was Whipton Barton, a large 17th century farmhouse in Whipton village. The history of the site dated back to the Domesday survey. Whipton Barton was purchased by the city council in the 1950s, left to fall into disrepair and, despite being a listed building, was demolished in the early 1960s. A block of flats, known as Rennes House, was built on the site.)

The photograph above shows Nos. 42-46 Magdalen Street in 1975. Purchased by the city council they were allowed to rot before being demolished. The late Georgian facade of Nos. 44-46 concealed the mid 17th century brick mansion of John Matthew, a fact that was only discovered when the property was being demolished.

The specific buildings mentioned by David Pearce were Magdalen House and Nos. 42-46 Magdalen Street, all of which were Grade II listed structures. (Magdalen House was listed in 1953. Nos. 42-46 Magdalen Street were listed in 1974. They were all demolished just three years later.) It is shocking to realise that these particular buildings, on the north side of Magdalen Street, did not impede in any way the new road system. The current pavement is on the same alignment as it was before the creation of the inner bypass and where the houses once stood is just a big patch of grass in front of the modern Southgate hotel.

As Jacqueline Warren states, after 1974 Magdalen House "seemed safe, and it has never really been made clear why it was not properly looked after; why it was demolished instead of restored". Other important buildings suffered the same fate. No. 36 Holloway Street, known as Holloway House, was granted Grade II listed status in 1953. It was a large brick townhouse built at the end of the 17th century, its three-storey facade set back from the road. It was demolished in 1980. No. 35 Holloway Street dated to 1797 and was listed in 1973. It too was demolished. Nos. 48-56 Holloway Street were also Grade II listed in 1973. These were mid-19th century houses with stucco facades and an unusual string course and cornice that curved up the face of the houses following the slope on which the houses were built. These too were demolished. The west side of Holloway Street was almost completely obliterated. Nearly 400 metres of pre-war frontages were torn down leaving just three, traffic-blighted examples near the top to indicate what has been lost. (The three survivors on the west side are Nos. 71-73 Holloway Street, all Grade II listed, shown above and as 8 on the Ordnance Survey aerial view.) The east side fared little better with 'only' around 200 metres of pre-war frontages being demolished.

Not only were most of the affected buildings in Holloway Street and Magdalen Street destroyed without any archaeological or architectural record, but a 30 metre stretch of the Roman city wall was hacked down to ground level by council workmen using pickaxes. As a Scheduled Ancient Monument the city wall was allegedly protected by law but the council applied to the Ministry of Works for permission to demolish it and permission was granted (another large section was destroyed at Eastgate during the post-war reconstruction). The houses in Quay Lane, another area that had little to do with the creation of the inner bypass, were also destroyed. The photograph above shows the large section of the city wall that was demolished to accomodate the inner bypass, now spanned by a pedestrian footbridge. The photograph below shows the view towards the Magdalen Street-Holloway Street junction today.

Changes in legislation during the 1980s made it more difficult for local authorities to destroy listed buildings but, for Exeter at least, it was too late as the obliteration of most of the city's historical fabric was complete. The pre-war slum clearances in Paul Street, Frog Street, Smythen Street, Preston Street and Stepcote Hill, the bombing in 1942 of the High Street, South Street, Bedford Circus and Sidwell Street, the post-war removal of most of the standing structures in the bomb-affected areas, the creation of the post-war inner ring road, the installation of the flood defence system in the 1960s, the rebuilding of the Exe Bridges at Cowick Street and Exe Island, and the creation of the sprawling Guildhall Shopping Centre at North Street, Goldsmith Street and Waterbeer Street has resulted in the wholesale destruction of Exeter as a visually historic city.

The loss of life caused by the Exeter Blitz shouldn't be forgotten but it seems strange that so much emphasis is placed on the physical damage wrought upon the city by German bombers in 1942 when the majority of the architectural losses over the course of the 20th century have been entirely self-inflicted.

Even some of those buildings which now survive, feted as important parts of the city's architectural heritage, only escaped through the post-war endeavors of protestors. For example, in the 1960s and 1970s the city council actively campaigned for the total demolition of the Higher Market in Queen Street, the late Regency houses in Bartholomew West, and the 16th and 17th century houses at No. 226 and No. 227 High Street. (The Higher Market was partially demolished anyway and Nos. 226 and 227 only exist today as shallow facades, their ground floors completely gutted.)

In the city's Royal Albert Memorial Museum is a display of medieval, Tudor and Jacobean metal door fittings that were salvaged from the ashes of buildings destroyed in 1942. These fittings are accompanied by an information panel that makes the bizarre assertion that "after so much destruction people were determined to look after the historic buildings that remained".

There are of course instances of the post-war city council salvaging historical buildings e.g. the remaining fragment of old Larkbeare House further down Holloway Street, the much-publicised 'House That Moved' (moved to the edge of the inner bypass) or, more recently, the restoration of Cricklepit Mill, but the extent of the demolition that took place around Exeter following World War Two is quite at odds with the museum's bold claim. It was only exceptional conservation cases that were considered to be of any importance. Although the general background noise of lesser streets and perhaps lesser buildings provided context, coherence and visual proof of organic development over centuries it was, unfortunately, regarded as expendable.

Two other issues deserve mention. One is Exeter's over-burdened road system. The inner bypass was completed in the 1970s when both car ownership and the population of the city were much lower. I'm sure it was lovely to speed around the semi-empty new road system in the early 1970s but anyone who has queued along Alphington Road, Topsham Road, Holloway Street, Western Way, Magdalen Street or Cowick Street will understand that the inner bypass now suffers from major gridlock at key times of the day. The situation will only become worse given the thousands of new houses that are being thrown up around the city's outskirts. It seems all that demolition only provided a temporary solution to what is becoming an increasingly big problem.

The other issue is the poor architecture that was built in the South Gate area following the creation of the road system. These squat blocks of flats have no redeeming features other than their lack of verticality (although at least if you're in it you don't have to look at it.) Like so much of Exeter's post-war architecture, they wouldn't appear out of place on an industrial estate. What was once the great historical approach into the city is today a barren wasteland of roads, junctions, roundabouts and traffic lights.

Sources

The South Gate, South Street

The image left attempts to give some idea of how the exterior of Exeter's South Gate might've appeared today had it not been demolished in 1819. Located at the end of South Street, the South Gate was the main entrance into the city for nearly 1700 years.

Built by the Romans, altered by the Saxons and rebuilt by the Normans, the gate acquired its final form in the Late Middle Ages and remained little altered until it was pulled down at the beginning of the 19th century.

The first Roman gatehouse on the site was built c140 AD, a product of the transformation of Isca Dumnoniorum from a former military fortress into a civilian settlement. As the population had increased the perimeter of the settlement was extended outwards to cover the area still bounded by the city walls. A defensive ditch with an earthen bank topped by a wooden palisade was constructed around the newly-enlarged civitas. The Roman South Gate would've been part of this expansion and was originally built of wood. (Timber from this earliest incarnation of the South Gate was excavated in February 1989.) In c180 AD the wooden palisade and bank were replaced with a thick stone wall, parts of which can still be seen today, and the South Gate was rebuilt in stone at the same time.

The aerial view of Exeter right shows the circuit of the Roman and medieval city walls highlighted in purple (missing sections are highlighted in red). No. 2 marks the former location of the South Gate. South Street can clearly be seen heading towards the city centre where it meets Fore Street, North Street and the High Street at the ancient crossroad known as the Carfoix.

The Roman South Gate is the only one of Exeter's Roman gatehouses for which archaeological evidence has been found and its remains still lie beneath the modern road. The stone gatehouse consisted of two tall square towers flanking a central entrance. It was about 55ft (17m) wide, including both towers. Unfortunately very little is known about Exeter during the so-called Dark Ages, but the South Gate, along with the city walls, must've remained standing after the decline of the Roman administration of Britain in the early 5th century. When Alfred the Great refortified Exeter between 880 and 895, one of the measures taken to improve security probably included rebuilding the South Gate.

(The late medieval South Gate is shown in Hogenburg's 1587 map of Exeter left. The crenellated wall with an archway is presumably the priest's house projecting over the street from the tower of Holy Trinity church.)

Christopher Hendersen in his 2001 paper 'The Development of the South Gate of Exeter and its Role in the City Defences' believed that the Anglo-Saxon gate was probably constructed primarily of timber but also included some "elements" of the old Roman gate that were still standing some 600 years after it had first been built. Hendersen also believed that the late 9th century gatehouse was itself probably rebuilt again, this time in stone, during the 11th century, either just before or just after the Norman Conquest.

For some reason, perhaps French raids on the south coast of England, the South Gate received a massive overhaul between 1410 and 1420, transforming the earlier structure into what Hoskins called "one of the most impressive things of its kind in England". Like the outer face of the East Gate, the new South Gate was also probably built of the extremely durable grey/purple volcanic trap quarried from a variety of sites around Exeter. The early 15th century South Gate consisted of a bastion in the form of a rectangular block. The rear of the block lay flush with the line of the city wall and projected outwards over the old town ditch. The block was flanked on either side by huge drum towers, each tower being of four storeys and at least 50ft high. There was a drawbridge set into the carriageway and deep ditches ran away on either side.

A central passageway some 16ft (5m) tall, the interior of which was constructed with rib vaulting, ran through the centre of the bastion and a niche on the outer face contained a statue. The exterior face also had arrow slits and carved shields set into square stone plaques. The towers were subdivided into separate rooms and there were also chambers in the part of the gatehouse that spanned the central passageway. When the Tudor antiquarian, John Leland, visited Exeter in 1542 he believed that the South Gate was "the strongest" of the city's four main medieval gatehouses although the East Gate was perhaps larger.

Alexander Jenkins left an eyewitness description of the South Gate as it appeared in 1806: "The gate is a massy [massive] building of hewn stone. The entrance from the suburbs is through a lofty pointed arch, flanked by circular towers, over the gateway is a niche, where lately stood a mutilated statue in a magisterial robe; this front is likewise decorated with angels, supporting the Royal and City arms; the interior arch of the gateway from its semi-circular form, appears of Saxon construction, and is probably some remains of the ancient gate".

The image above is one of the few surviving depictions of the interior elevation of the early 15th century rebuilding. This view was obscured for centuries by the priest's house of Holy Trinity church which spanned South Street almost directly behind the gate. The drawing was executed in the very short space of time between the demolition of the priest's house and the gatehouse itself. The location of what was probably part of the side wall of the priest's house is highlighted in purple. The semi-circular inner archway of the gatehouse is clearly visible. The north wall had stone mullion windows with what looks like cusped tracery. The upper chambers could be accessed from the top of the city walls via a doorway. The debris on the ground to the left is demolition rubble from the church and the priest's house.

The fact that the exterior arch was pointed and the interior arch was semi-circular strongly suggests that the gatehouse built between 1410 and 1420 also retained elements of a much earlier structure. The disparity between the two styles of arch was noted in the 1720s by the English antiquarian William Stukeley. He wrote that "one arch of South-gate seems to be Roman", a surviving component of the gatehouse built one-and-a-half thousand years earlier.

The idea that the interior arch of the late medieval South Gate was part of the original Roman building has been banded around ever since. As late as 1971 Aileen Fox wrote that "it is possible that the round arch that is shown on the inside of the South Gate in early nineteenth century prints was a Roman survival". Wacher went further in 1975 when he stated that the arch "almost certainly" dated to the Roman period. A partial excavation of the site in 1992 indicated that parts of the Roman gatehouse had been demolished by c1200. A small guide to the city walls, written in association with the Exeter Archaeology unit and published in 1998 maintained that "the archway was probably Roman". Chris Hendersen, in the above-mentioned paper of 2001, supported Jenkins' belief that the archway was probably late Saxon or early Norman and dated to the 11th century. Unfortunately, now the South Gate no longer exists, it's not possible to say categorically whether the arch was Roman or Saxo-Norman in date, although the latter seems most likely.

Chris Hendersen described the process whereby the Roman/Saxo-Norman arch at the South Gate might've been retained. Before it was rebuilt in the early 15th century, the exterior face of the South Gate was flush with the city wall and didn't project out from the city as it did after 1420. Following the construction of the bastion and the two flanking towers, what was once the exterior arch of the Saxo-Norman gatehouse became the interior arch of the early 15th century gatehouse.

It probably didn't seem worth rebuilding a semi-circular arch that was being protected by the tremendous strength of the new outwork. This is perhaps why the new exterior arch was a pointed Gothic arch in keeping with the 15th century and yet the interior remained as an old-fashioned semi-circular arch, familiar to the Romans, Saxons and Normans. Two very similar archways to that which has prompted so much discussion still exist in Exeter at the gatehouse of Rougemont Castle above left. The two castle arches of c1068 are constructed from white sandstone. The interior arch at the South Gate was similar in appearance. The general colour scheme of the castle gatehouse, with its contrast between the white dressed stone of the arches and the purple volcanic trap of the walls, is also very reminiscent of what would've been the colouring of the South Gate.

Another uncertainty surrounding the architecture of the South Gate was the close proximity of the house used by the priest of Holy Trinity church. The church was sited just within the city walls, almost adjacent to the South Gate itself. Jenkins complained in 1806 that the South Gate and the church's bell tower constricted the flow of traffic in and out of Exeter, a situation "rendered still worse by an arched building adjoining the tower, once the habitation of the Priest, but now of the Sexton". An 1853 article by William Harding also refers to this property. Harding cites a document relating to the parish of Holy Trinity dated 18 May 1615 which, according to him, "mentions also the Parsonage House, which was built over the king's high way; the entrance to which was by a Gothic door, forming an inconvenient projection into the street".

This structure, with a pointed gable roof, is shown in the drawing above right. The arch of the South Gate itself can just be seen in the distance. The few surviving images of the priest's house suggest that it too had semi-circular arches but it was quite separate from the South Gate as a gap existed between the front wall of the priest's house and the back wall of the South Gate itself although the two were built of a similar material. In fact, prior to 1819, anyone walking down South Street would've had their view of the South Gate almost completely obscured by the presence of the overarching priest's house.

The South Gate and the priest's house were accurately depicted by Caleb Hedgeland on his early 19th century model of the city, a detail of which is shown left. The early 15th century reconstruction of the South Gate is highlighted in red. The priest's house is highlighted in purple connected directly to the church of Holy Trinity. Holy Trinity was itself remodelled around the same time that the South Gate was rebuilt. Was the priest's house originally part of the South Gate and only later used by the priests? Was it constructed at the same time or was it part of an earlier building? Unfortunately I can't find out much else about it.

In c1600 the roof of the South Gate was strengthened to take guns and the height of the gate raised, but apart from these slight alterations the South Gate remained unchanged until the beginning of the 19th century. From the 16th century onwards the gatehouse was used as the city prison. The prison reformer, James Neild, visited the South Gate prison in 1806 and recorded that "it consists, amongst others, of two rooms in the Keeper's house called the Long Room and the Shoe".

According to Neild, the Shoe received its name from a shoe that was hung by the prisoners from a length of string and suspended from "the iron-grated window towards the street". The idea was that charitable passers-by would put a small amount of money into the shoe (hence the phrase "living on a shoestring"). Neild recorded that the Shoe was used by debtors that "bring their own beds and pay six-pence per week". The image right is an early 20th century postcard depicting a fictional view of prisoners lowering a shoe to pedestrians. The artist has shown the prisoners as being incarcerated in the priest's house of Holy Trinity rather than the South Gate.

The Long Room was used by the debtors for exercise, there being no courtyard. There were nine other rooms that could be let out by the jailer according to the debtors ability to pay. Jenkins reported that the room called the Shoe had formerly been a chapel as the remnants of the Ten Commandments, painted on the wall, could still be seen. He also believed that the debtors were sometimes allowed access to the tops of the towers, "which command a fine prospect", so they could enjoy some of the fresh air.

The felons had a much worse time of it. Neild stated that "on the side opposite of the Gaoler's apartments are the three wards appropriated to the felons, dark, dirty and offensive; - we went into them with lighted candles: they have no chimney for ventilation; no courtyard belonging to them; nor water, except what was brought by the Keeper". There were three cells, two for men and one for women, located in the western side of the gatehouse. Jenkins related that these cells were all on the ground floor and "from their damp situation, and darkness, may not improperly be termed dungeons". The presence of an open sewer flowing from nearby Southernhay didn't add much to the comfort of those unfortunate enough to be imprisoned there. The largest felon cell was just over 12ft high, 18ft wide and 11ft deep. Above these cells were two day rooms with fireplaces accessed from below via a trap door. Jenkins wrote that John Howard, the 18th century prison reformer, believed that the South Gate prison was one of the "most unwholesome and dismal places of confinement" in England.

In June 1818 the foundation stone for a new 'House of Correction' was laid by the mayor at Northernhay where the Rougemont Hotel now stands. According to the 'Exeter Flying Post', the mayor declared that the construction of the new prison would take approximately 12 months "when the completion of their labours would be the destruction of a building which has long outraged humanity, and disgraced the city of Exeter". It's likely that the gatehouse would've been removed irrespective of the presence of the prison itself.

All of the city's other medieval gatehouse had already been removed for street improvements and the South Gate was the last one to go. Exactly one year later, in June 1819, an advertisement right appeared in the 'Exeter Flying Post' announcing the sale of building material from the South Gate, comprising bricks, stone, woodwork, floor joists as well as doors, windows and slate and lead from the roof. Parts of the South Gate must still exist in Exeter, spread around the city in various houses. (Old beams from 17th century houses demolished outside the South Gate in the 1970s were reused in a similar way e.g. at a house in Sylvan Road, Pennsylvannia.) The priest's house of Holy Trinity was demolished, along with the church, at the same time.

As with the slum clearances at the beginning of the 20th century, although the philanthropic sentiment can't be faulted it's impossible not to regret the demolition of the South Gate. As Hoskins wrote, "it's a vast pity that this magnificent gateway, one of the most impressive things of its kind in England, should have been destroyed like this and not by-passed as it could easily have been. Through this gateway many kings of England had passed from William the Conqueror onwards: it ranked with the cathedral, the castle, and the guildhall, as one of the grandest monuments to the Middle Ages in Exeter". The only city gatehouse left in England that was similar to the South Gate at Exeter is probably the surviving West Gate at Canterbury (the many surviving medieval gatehouses in York are of a quite different design).

The site today is marked by a late 19th century bronze plaque. The footprint of one of the square Roman towers and one of the early 15th century drum towers is marked out on the pavement in brick, highlighted in purple and red on the aerial view above left. Unfortunately the approach to the gate, an area that survived the Exeter Blitz of 1942 and which contained many historically interesting properties from the 17th and 18th centuries, has been totally spoilt by the construction of the inner bypass in the 1960s and 1970s. But that's a whole different story.

Sources

Holy Trinity Church, South Street

In 1908 Beatrix Cresswell claimed that the church of Holy Trinity on South Street "has been almost the worst architectural sufferer in the city". The candidate for that title, over a century later, is much longer than it was even in Cresswell's day but the complete demolition and rebuilding of the ancient church in 1820 was certainly unfortunate.

Built mostly from red Heavitree breccia, Holy Trinity stood just inside the city walls, almost adjacent to the South Gate. The church and the gatehouse were so close to each other that, from a distance, it appeared as if they were two parts of the same structure. Something of this effect can be seen in the drawing left. It shows the view at the bottom of South Street looking out of the city via the South Gate. Only the north-west tower of Holy Trinity is visible to the left, projecting out into the street. The main body of the church lies out of sight behind the timber-framed house, at a right-angle to the street and parallel with the city wall. A narrow passageway ran between the side of the church and the house shown to the immediate left of the tower.

The photo right, a detail from Hedgeland's early 19th century model of Exeter, gives a clearer idea of the relationship between Holy Trinity and the South Gate. George's Meeting, further up South Street, James Street and the city wall can also be seen.

All of the city's medieval gatehouses had parish churches or chapels associated with them. St Cuthbert's was either close to or inside the North Gate. St Bartholomew's was almost certainly in an upper chamber inside the East Gate. St Mary Steps was just through the West Gate. I doubt it was a coincidence that places of worship and sanctuary grew up at what have been the main entrances into Exeter since the 2nd century AD.

Holy Trinity on South Street was in existence by 1200 although the exact date of its foundation is unknown. It's mentioned by Peter de Palerna at the beginning of the 13th century along with another chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity in Musgrave Alley, close to St Lawrence's church on the High Street. Given the great antiquity of the South Gate it's easy to imagine that a chapel of some sort was on the site before the Norman Conquest but there is no evidence for it. By the end of the 18th century the majority of the parish of Holy Trinity lay beyond the city walls and was described in 1806 as "extensive and populous". It included nearly all of Southernhay and the Quay as well as Magdalen Street and part of Holloway Street. The Trinity Burial Ground, now under the Southgate Hotel and car park, was established close to Holy Trinity church in 1664.

A detail from Hooker's 1587 map of Exeter is shown left with both the tower of Holy Trinity and the South Gate clearly visible. The gatehouse to the Bishop's Palace can be seen in the background.

Alexander Jenkins visited the medieval church in 1806, describing it as "a handsome Gothic edifice, kept in good repair". The tower contained "four small untunable bells, and a clock and dial". Both the gatehouse and the tower of Holy Trinity caused a significant narrowing of South Street as the thoroughfare passed under the South Gate. Jenkins mentions "an arched building adjoining the tower, once the habitation of the Priest, but now of the Sexton". The priest's house was located "over the king's high way" i.e. over South Street itself. In the early 17th century it was known as the Parsonage House and was entered from South Street via a Gothic doorway. According to Jenkins the interior of the church consisted of "a chancel, nave and one aisle". The aisle was separated from the nave by "six clustered pillars", and there were also two galleries. Jenkins also describes "a neat monument" on the north side of the chancel in memory of John Wyse, a merchant who died in 1686.

The image right is a detail from Benjamin Donn's 1765 map of Exeter showing the location of Holy Trinity just inside the city walls.

Little else would be known about the medieval building if it wasn't for the remarkable survival of one particular document. It was written in 1452 when Bishop Lacy held the See of Exeter and refers to an enquiry ordered by the Bishop following a request by Simon Chudleigh, then Rector of Holy Trinity. The enquiry revolved around the issue of when the church was first dedicated. The document reveals that the church was already so old and decayed by the beginning of the 15th century that some major rebuilding was necessary. The building works were carried out under a previous rector, John Govys, who assumed the position from 1402 until 1416. The repairs were extensive and it appears that the church was closed for a considerable period of time. The roof was replaced and the south and west walls were rebuilt. The north wall remained intact apart from some timber additions to the upper part to help support the roof. It's possible that these repairs deliberately coincided with a major rebuilding of the South Gate between 1410 and 1420. (Bishop Stafford held the See of Exeter between 1395 and 1419. A detail from his alabaster effigy in Exeter Cathedral, covered in post-Reformation graffiti, is shown below left.)

It was customary to celebrate annually the date when a church was originally consecrated. The problem at Holy Trinity lay in the fact that the church was closed for so long during the repairs that by 1452 no-one could be quite sure when the feast of dedication should take place or whether the church had been desecrated during the renovations. This is why the rector Simon Chudleigh approached Bishop Lacy and Lacy's enquiry attempted to rediscover the date of the consecration.

The enquiry took place in the church itself on 23 August. It was led by the Archdeacon of Exeter and nine of the oldest inhabitants of the parish were interviewed as witnesses. The witnesses included Ralph Ferrant, a blacksmith aged around seventy-six or more who had lived in Exeter for over sixty years; John Whytton, who was 80-years-old; Nicholas Bishop, a tucker who worked in the city's cloth industry and was aged over seventy-four, and Simon Riggeway who was over seventy. These people would've been regarded as exceptionally ancient given that the average lifespan was between 30 and 40!

None of the nine witnesses could remember when or by whom the church was first dedicated because their memories did not extend back that far but they all seemed to agree that the church's feast day was the 30 September, the feast day of St Jerome. They also declared that they had seen the church prior to the renovations and it had retained the signs of dedication. These 'signs' were twelves crosses which had been painted on the walls of the church prior to the feast of dedication (three on each of the four interior walls). Above each cross a nail was driven into the wall from which was suspended a candle that was lit as part of the annual dedication ceremony. The witnesses also swore that the church hadn't been desecrated during the building works over thirty years before.

The image right shows Holy Trinity and the two arched passageways of the South Gate as drawn by John Hooker c1555.

As well as relating the information about the earlier rebuilding of the walls and the roof, the witnesses also revealed that the church had contained "a soler" i.e. a gallery or loft from which members of the congregation could witness the service. There was also a high altar made of stone in the chancel and outside the chancel were three other stone altars. The central altar of the three was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Another was dedicated to St Giles and featured a wooden statue of the saint set within a niche or tabernacle in the wall.

Near the stone baptismal font was an effigy of the corpse of John de Susseter who had been made Rector of Holy Trinity in 1349. The nature of this effigy is a slight mystery. It sounds like a cadaver tomb which usually depict a sculpted decomposing corpse, or transi. Two examples of this macabre type of monument can still be seen in Exeter Cathedral, detail left. They didn't become widespread in England until c1420 onwards by which time John de Susseter was long dead. (The two examples in Exeter Cathedral are from the 16th century.) It's possible that Susseter's monument was a very early example or perhaps it was something quite different entirely. Unfortunately no further details about the effigy are given and its fate is unknown. The witnesses also testified to the fact that the place of John de Susseter's burial could be seen as the ground had sunk following the decomposition of the body. The enquiry concluded that the feast of dedication was indeed on 30 September and that the church hadn't been desecrated during the repairs. The document remained in the parish chest at Holy Trinity for centuries until it was framed, hanging on the wall of the vestry of the post-1820 structure. Today it is presumably either in the cathedral archives or the Devon Records Office.

The composite image right gives some idea of how the medieval church and the South Gate would appear today in South Street if they had both avoided demolition.

On 18 May 1529 the mayor granted the church a piece of land for a new aisle (presumably the aisle mentioned by Jenkins in 1806). Before this date the church probably consisted solely of a nave and chancel, as St Pancras' church still does today. A Corporation Act states that the aisle was to be 12ft wide, extending out "from the churche wall of the Trinity aforesaid, towards the wall of the Citie, and 32 fote of length". The church was to pay the city 2s every year in perpetuity for the use of the land. In 1656, during the Commonwealth that followed the English Civil War, the number of parish churches in Exeter was reduced to just four. On 19 June 1658 Holy Trinity was sold to its parishioners for £100. The parish was restored following the Restoration in 1660. Apart from the addition of the aisle in the 1520s, the fabric of the church appears to have remained largely unchanged from the early 15th century until Jenkins visited in 1806.

Plans for the demolition of Holy Trinity had surfaced by 1817. On 31 July both the church and the tower were described in a letter sent to the 'Exeter Flying Post' as "decayed and delapidated" and "a great and dangerous public nuisance...long and universally complained of." The tower blocking part of South Street seems to have been a particular source of irritation. It seems that not everyone agreed with the proposed demolition and rebuilding of Holy Trinity. One parishioner, calling himself 'Trinitarian', smelt a rat in the fact that the church had been declared unsound at what he called a "convenient time". It does seem strange that just ten years earlier Jenkins had claimed that the church was "kept in good repair".

Space was also an issue. The medieval church could only sit around 400 worshippers whereas there were approximately 1900 in the extensive parish of Holy Trinity. The two options were either to repair and enlarge the church or to demolish it completely and build a new one. On 03 December 1818 a parish meeting voted on a proposition brought forward by Samuel Milford. The proposal included "taking down entirely the present Church and rebuilding it of dimensions adequate to the population of the parish". The motion was carried unanimously and the church was demolished in the spring of 1819. The South Gate followed soon after.

It's unfortunate that the old church wasn't repaired and retained. Cresswell said that "nothing could check the all-devouring monster of 'street improvement'", which had "assimilated one old building in the city after another". Cresswell also refers to the "architectural deformities" of the replacement church, designed and built by Robert Cornish and his son, local architects, and constructed at a cost of £7000 above. Brick-built with a stucco exterior, the new church was opened on Christmas Eve 1820 and no-one seems to have a good word to say about it. Just a year after its completion it was described by George Oliver as "inelegant" and Robert Dymond called it "singular". More recently, Hugh Mellor described the building as "shabby" and wonders whether its destruction during the Blitz wouldn't have been "a merciful release". It doesn't help that post-war demolition of the surrounding area has left the building standing in such a prominent position, stripped of its context within a larger historical landscape. The church was deconsecrated in the 1970s and in 1977 was taken over by the White Ensign Club who divided it horizontally into two separate floors. No ecclesiastical fixtures survive, although one window contains a late 19th century nativity scene in stained glass. The White Ensign Club, as it is now known, is Grade II listed.

The photograph below shows the former Holy Trinity church on the right with South Street receding into the distance. The location of what was once one of the South Gate's huge round towers is picked out in brick on the pavement to the left.

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George's Meeting, South Street

George's Meeting on South Street left is a real cracker. It has survived both the Exeter Blitz and post-war reconstruction and is now one of Exeter's Grade I listed buildings. Only 2.5% of all listed buildings in England fall into this category, reserved for structures of exceptional interest.

George's Meeting was built as a Unitarian chapel in 1760, the year in which George III acceded to the throne. According to Allan Brockett, "it was named George's Chapel in remembrance of the benefits that English Protestantism, and the Dissenters in particular, had gained from the Hannoverian Succession". The south west of Britain has a long history of Nonconformism. Dissenting congregations i.e. those who had broken away from the established Church of England, were only able to worship freely without fear of interference in their own meeting houses following the Declaration of Indulgence in 1687 and the Toleration Act of 1689. One of the first of these meeting houses was James's Meeting, named after King James II, built by the Exeter Presbyterians in 1687. It was located in James Street, a narrow street almost opposite George's Meeting and close to the South Gate. (The original James's Meeting of 1687 was converted into houses in 1760 and survived until it was demolished by the city council in the 1960s.)

Two other early Dissenting meeting houses emerged in Exeter at the end of the 17th century. One was the Bow Meeting, probably located in Smythen Street within the parish of St John's Bow on Fore Street. The other was Little Meeting located in Waterbeer Street. James's Meeting, Bow Meeting and Little Meeting were collectively known as the Three United Congregations of Presbyterian Protestant Dissenters.

George's Meeting in South Street was constructed as a replacement for the earlier James's Meeting. In the words of Hugh Mellor, the new meeting house was "built on a scale unsurpassed by any other [Dissenting] chapel in the south west". Funds for the new building were raised partly through the sale of both the old James's Meeting house in James Street and the Little Meeting house in Waterbeer Street. £400 was borrowed from a fund and the rest was raised through subscription, paid for by members of a congregation described as "large and genteel" by Jenkins in 1806. Some of those who donated money were members of the Kennaway family, one of Exeter's wealthiest families by the end of the 18th century. (John Kennaway was raised to the Baronetcy of Hyderabad in the East Indies by George III in 1791. The family still live on their 18th century estate at Escot, some 12 miles from Exeter.) Allan Brockett has surmised that the total amount available for building George's Meeting was around £2500 to £3000.

The building was never intended to be seen as it appears today. Prior to the 1960s George's Meeting was set back from South Street, surrounded by other properties which hemmed it in on either side.

The aerial view left shows George's Meeting highlighted in purple. Bomb damage from 1942 is highlighted in red. The area affected by post-war redevelopment is highlighted in yellow. The adjacent buildings were demolished in the late 1950s for road-widening leaving George's Meeting exposed on all sides. Today the structure looks like a huge barn, pierced on the sides with arched windows. Only the neo-Classical front was originally designed for public display.

The meeting house is built from the beautiful locally-fired, burnt-red bricks that were once a common sight throughout the Georgian city (e.g. at Bedford Circus, Dix's Field and Southernhay West). The restrained street frontage has a number of neo-Classical details e.g. the pedimented porch supported on a pair of stone Tuscan columns, the brackets supporting the arched windows, the rendered quoins at each corner and the modillion cornice which runs along the roof line with a high curved parapet above. The parapet serves to disguise the large hipped roof from street level. (When the New Theatre was constructed in Bedford Street in 1787 it took a form that was similar to George's Meeting in South Street, including the red-brick walls, hipped roof, distinctive curved parapet, etc. The New Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1820.)

Pevsner and Cherry described the interior of George's Meeting as "sombre and magnificent". There are three galleries supported by square, fluted, Ionic piers right c1960 © Devon County Council. The west gallery includes a late 17th century clock, but the highlight is probably the enormous pulpit, carved with drapery, transferred from the original James's Meeting in James Street. In 1767 there were plans for a new mahogany pulpit but nothing seems to have come of this. Allan Brockett believed it was unlikely that any replacement would've equalled the one recycled from the old meeting house anyway. A vestry was added at the rear in 1781 and the ceiling was lowered by 3ft in 1809 to improve the acoustics, but the building has remained essentially unchanged since the middle of the 18th century.

It is astonishing that the city's post-war townplanner, Thomas Sharp, regarded the meeting house as disposable, recommending its demolition as part of the redevelopment of Exeter following World War Two. If George's Meeting hadn't been set back from the street in 1760 it would probably have been demolished for road-widening. Fortunately the local authority rejected Sharp's proposal and George's Meeting received listed building status in 1953.

The meeting house fell into disuse in 1983 and is now a Weatherspoons pub. The bar has been constructed underneath the full length of one of the galleries. It's a pity that such an important building couldn't have been used as a venue, retaining the original space, but all of the historical fittings have been left intact, including the pulpit, and at least the building is being maintained. Its situation at the end of South Street, surrounded by post-war redevelopment and close to the city's inner ring road, means that George's Meeting probably doesn't get the full attention it deserves.

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