Ordnance Arms

It stood by the corner of Queen Street and Cannon Street, yards away from Ordnance Wharf, more commonly called the Gun Wharf (and which has been known since the last war, when the Army gave it up to the Admiralty, as Morice Yard).

Ordnance Wharf, “Ye magazine for Stores of war” was developed in the 1720s, the existing gateway dates from 1722 and it is likely that the original Ordnance Street, running east from it to Morice Square, was laid out soon afterwards. Certainly there is record of a seemingly separate and distinct eighteenth-century Ordnance Inn in Ordnance Street, although the two appear not to overlap with respect to their licenses. Curiously enough there was another Ordnance Arms in Devonport, however this was rechristened the Devonport Railway Hotel in the late 1870s, just before our first record of the Queen Street pub. The Ordnance Arms closed in 1928 just prior to the first large scale redevelopment of this area.

Licensees

1897 - William Richards
1898 - L Pearce
1900 - W White
1909 - R Hodgetts
1912 - J Tucker
1914 - L Pidgeon
1920 - Henry Pepperell