Dolphin Tavern

Durnford Street, Stonehouse, is not known for its pubs, indeed it would appear to have been pub-free for over a hundred years, perhaps longer, however, back in 1790, before the construction of the Military Hospital on the other side of Stonehouse Creek, before the laying out of Union Street and some thirty years before work began on the Royal William Victualling Yard, the picture was a little different. Stonehouse then was a small community huddled around the waterfront either side of the newly constructed Stonehouse Bridge (designed by John Smeaton – of the lighthouse fame -it opened in 1779). The Royal Marine Barracks was also relatively new – work on it had only started seven years earlier. However there was a well-established Rope-Yard on the peninsula it measured ‘upwards of 200 fathoms in length’ and Friday 19th February 1790 it was sold at the Dolphin Tavern, Durnford Street, East Stonehouse. The pub appears to have been a victim of the redevelopment of the area over the following couple of decades.