Britannia Inn (James Street)

Running along almost in line with the Dockyard Wall as it stretched down towards Mutton Cove, James Street, like many of Devonport’s busier thoroughfares once had a number of pubs lining the road, among them the Britannia Inn.

Ever a popular pub name, particularly in the days when Britannia did rule the waves, Plymouth currently has two Britannias one at Milehouse and another off Union Street in Octagon Street; there was also a Britannia in the heart of old Plymouth, in High Street (now Buckwell Street).

However it was only logical that there should also have been one closer to where the Royal Navy were based, in Devonport – and there was, in that section of James Street that tapered away to nothing on the western side, before briefly reappearing just up from Mutton Cove. It closed not long after the turn of the nineteenth century.

Licensees

1847 - Thomas Riley
1862 - Stephen Balkwill
1873 - Edwin Coaker
1877 - TC Yandell
1890 - Michael Lacey
1907 - A Gill