Union Street

Generally recognised as having been laid out to unite the Three Towns of Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport in the second decade of the nineteenth century, a truer version would be that Union Street was developed to lead potential patrons from Stonehouse and Devonport straight to the door of Plymouth's new Theatre Royal.

At that time there were two routes linking Stonehouse and Plymouth, but both were narrow and neither was particularly satisfactory. The decision to forge a straight line across the marshy Sourpool above Millbay appears to have been that of the Theatre Royal's architect, John Foulston (he also chose the then isolated site for the theatre).

However, we also know that it was 'an object of some importance to Stonehouse to obtain a better access to Plymouth and from thence with the roads to Exeter, Tavistock, etc'. The crucial element, however, was the need to provide the people of Devonport with easy access to the theatre. Remember, the old theatre opened with a capacity of 1,192 and at that time the population of Plymouth was only about 16,000, while the population of Devonport was about 23,000.

If the theatre was going to survive it had to be easily available to as many people as possible. So it was that the longest and straightest street ever seen up to that point in the three towns was laid out, linking Stonehouse Bridge with the Theatre Royal - although there was a slight dog-leg at the Plymouth end because the new road had to avoid newly-built premises in George Street.