Opporto Wine and Spirit Vaults

The better known of the local Opportos was probably the one in York Street, Plymouth, but there may, nevertheless, still be some older Devonport residents who remember the Opporto in James Street, Devonport.

Known for much of the nineteenth century as the Navy Arms, the Opporto stood within a stone’s throw, and with an oblique view, of the Dockyard Wall. On the southern corner of James Street and Mount Street, it was also just a few metres away from the junction of Edinburgh Road and James Street. It closed a good ten years before the outbreak of the Second World War, indeed it was open for business until February 1929, when it closed following a compulsory purchase order which had been successfully completed the previous month.

Licensees

1897 - Richard Parsons
1902 - C Launder
1905 - Alfred Ford
1907 - W Collins
1907 - H Tothill
1912 - A Price
1923 - Mrs Mary Rule
1926 - Frederick Marshall
1927 - Richard Down