Bell and Dragon

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was the oddly, but not uniquely, named Bell and Dragon Inn in Catherine Street (Plymouth Dock – as Devonport was then). Catherine Street ran south from Fore Street, into Duke Street and was the principal route from the Dockyard Gate to Plymouth via Stonehouse Bridge. Not surprisingly therefore, although it was not a very long thoroughfare, it was blessed with a number of pubs over the years, among them; the Globe, Elephant & Castle, Three Tuns, Barley Sheaf, Clarence, and Cherry Garden.

We also have reference to a Blue Bell pub in Catherine Street just two years earlier, and an Old Blue Bell in Plymouth Dock in the 1790s – was it one and the same under a different name?

Curiously enough there is also a record of a later Blue Bell, in Cornwall Street, Devonport, in the 1850s. Were they named after the flower or ship’s bells painted blue?

Licensees

1814 - William Halse
1822-30 - Richard Squire