Larkbeare House or 38 Holloway Street

This house, also known as Great Larkbeare, was part of an original castellated 15th century house that can be found in the dip of Holloway Street on the corner of Roberts Road. It was a substantial house built out of Heavitree stone, and boasted a garderobe or lavatory, which emptied into a stream that ran into the Exe. Originally built for woollen merchants, it was inhabited by the Hull family in the 15th-century, and Sir Nicholas Smith, a Sheriff of the City in the 16th-century. An early reference to the house is on Hoghenbegh's map of 1587, where it is depicted with castellated walls, a round castellated tower and arched side entrance, all in front of a range of cultivated fields. In 1716, an advert appeared in the 'Exeter Post Boy' which said:

"A Tenement To Be Lett Being the Fore Part of Larkbeare House, without Southgate, Exon, containing a Kitchen with a little Room by, a Large Parlour and a Cellar, with a Chamber over the Cellar; also 5 Lodging Chambers with 3 Closets; likewise a Garden; being very fit for a Private Family or any one who chooseth to live without the limits of the City. You may inquire of Mr. Lavington at Larkbeare House, who is ready to treat with any Person about the same".

It was let to tenants by its owner, a Mr Lavington. The house was sold in 1737 to John Baring, of the Baring Bank family. They moved out in 1819 to let it to tenants, and disposed of the house in 1832 to a Mrs Hodge. The house went into decline and in 1889 it was partly demolished when Roberts Road was developed and Holloway Street widened. It would seem that a Mr G Digginnes rescued and gave a "number of  carvings in stone from the old Larkbeare House, lately demolished; and these it is hoped may some day be built into some portion of the Museum". (FP 1890)

The secret tunnel

A few years later and someone sent a letter to the Flying Post regarding a possible tunnel that existed between Larkbeare House and the Cathedral, requesting further information from local historians. In October 1900 the Flying Post printed "A subsidence of the roadway occurred in Holloway-street on Tuesday morning in an underground passage leading from Larkbeare House, which was demolished in 1890, to the Cathedral, and from thence to the Castle." No history of Exeter or the house that I have consulted has mentioned this tunnel and whether it was explored, and where did it really lead....?

In 1975 the remaining building was declared to be in a dangerous condition leading to it being listed in 1977. Exeter City Council stepped in to save the house, and with help from the Devon Historic Buildings Trust, the building was purchased for £1, against the wishes of its owners, the BP Oil Company, who wanted to demolish the building. BP also owned the adjacent filling station, which has since closed. In their defence, BP made a donation to help with the cost of restoration.

The property really was in a very poor condition, and the front wall was in imminent danger of collapse due to the shaking it had to endure from the passing traffic.

In 1979, major restoration work was done, creating an attractive two bedroom dwelling. Some of the rooms have oak coffered ceilings, original stonework and the whole has an oak-braced roof. It also has a stone figure probably B&Q, circa 1998, preserved in a niche on the side wall that can be easily observed as you pass the house. As a bonus, the figure is festooned with tinsel at Christmas.

There is a large, greystone house opposite the Elizabethan house, between Holloway Street and the river, also called Larkbeare House. It was purchased by the city in 1876 and is used as a judges residence and a centre for hosting conventions. The house, standing in its own grounds, surrounded by a 10ft high wall, has eight bedrooms and costs £4,100 a week (2004) to rent. The gardens contain the redundant Port Royal lime kilns which were fed with lime from ships docking on St Leonards Quay, just below. In 1850, the St Leonards Quay limeburner was listed as W H & W W Hooper.

Source: Discovering Exeter, St Leonard's by Gilbert Venn, the Exeter City Council history website, 2000 Years in Exeter by W G Hoskins, detail from map at Devon Library and Information Services


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