Three Gables

These three buildings, dating from the late seventeenth-century, are an often overlooked gem of Cathedral Yard. They are situated in the area of Little Stile, one of the seven ancient gateways into the Close. They may have been constructed on the site of an earlier house for the poor, run by the church. The three houses have cellars lined with Heavitree stone, and are of timber frame construction.

In May 1847, the bakery of Mr Samuel Barrett at no 5 was attacked by a violent mob who stole a quantity of bread during a bread riot, before they went on to damage other property. In 1867, the shop was again attacked during a bread riot. By 1878 Matthew Barrett was running the shop and by 1897, it was still a bakery run by Tom Harris. No 5 was the tailors of Samuel Middleweek Hodge in 1878 and 1897.

Frederick Drake, lived at no 4 sometime after 1865. He was a stained glass window maker who was apprenticed, in Exeter, to Alfred Beer in 1852. Drake went on to restore the Great East Window of the Cathedral in 1884 to 1896. He was an important and prolific craftsman, who restored and put in windows into many Devon churches. He transformed no 4, installing a window in limestone from Ham Hill in Somerset. He also added internal oak panelling and a sixteenth-century fire surround. Although Drake died in 1921, the business was still trading through his son Maurice in 1939 from the same premises.

There was until recently, over no 5, a West of England Fire Insurance mark attached to the façade of the building.

By 1939, no 5 was the inevitable estate agent, no 4 Frederick Drake and no 3 Henry Stocker and Co., tailors. In 1959 there were solicitors, chartered accountants, Max Peterkin, a photographer and a duplicating and typewriting office working from the buildings.

In the recent past, the top floor of no 3 was the Exeter office of the publishers, Webb and Bower whose book, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady was a best seller. They had the original diary on display for a time in the office in the 1980s.

Source: Flying Post, Whites 1878 and Kelly's 1897.