King’s Head

It stood with its back to Admiralty House, Mount Wise, on the south side of Clowance Street, Devonport, which, then, as now, runs parallel to Pembroke Street (although both streets have been completely redeveloped). Unlike the latter however, Clowance Street did not have a large number of pubs, despite the fact that, towards the end of the nineteenth century, every other house in the street was described as being a ‘lodgings’.

Of the two pubs that the street was formerly blessed with, only the Clowance Tavern itself, on the corner of Stanley Street, lasted into the twentieth century, the King’s Head apparently calling last orders around the late-1860s early 1870s, with Robert Wheeler, who was there several years, the last known licensee.

Licensees

1823 - John Leslie
1830 - Mary Libby
1838 - John Philp
1850 - John Blight
1857 - Elizabeth Strong
1864 - Robert Wheeler