New Tree

In 1812 the New Tree Inn in Frankfort Place this would have been one of the last pubs on the western road leading out of Plymouth towards Stonehouse, indeed it led into Frankfort Street and joined up with Stonehouse Lane (which became King Street and High Street). Beyond it would have been almost all green fields as you navigated the northern reaches of the marsh land behind Millbay, until you reached the walls of the then still relatively new Royal Naval Hospital.

It is quite possible that the name somehow marked the opposite end of town from the Old Tree, which had stood in the middle of the road, just beyond Bretonside since Elizabethan times. This had more or less marked the eastern extremity of Plymouth but was apparently removed when a road was constructed to meet the newly created route via the Embankment (the name was still preserved in Old Tree Slip on edge of Sutton Harbour for many years after that). The New Tree Inn later became a pharmacy, and was itself pulled down in 1880. It stood, isolated (it was also known as the Island House) between Bedford Street and Basket Street, roughly where the southern end of the Piazza is today.

Licensees

1812 - J Eastley
1823-1844 - Thomas Short