Exeter High Street, photograph, 1979, Exeter

Photograph of Exeter High Street, 1979, Exeter

During the latter part of the 1970s, a partial pedestrianisation scheme was introduced to the section of High Street between Queen Street and Sidwell Street. All motor vehicles, with the exception of local buses and delivery services, were banned from entering the street, pavements were widened, and seats and flowerbeds were installed. The layout of the scheme has been changed on several occasions over the fifty years since it was first introduced, but this picture shows how it looked when it was originally implemented.

The photograph, taken by an Express & Echo photographer in 1979, shows the area from Boots the Chemist to the ABC Cinema and Debenhams. It shows clearly how the pavements had been greatly widened and seats and flower planters installed. It is interesting to note how the former dual carriage roadway had been replaced by a single lane carrying two-way bus traffic. 

At this time, the local bus services in Exeter were still being operated by double decker buses. In this picture an S bus is seen entering High Street en route for Rifford Road, but scenes like this would soon be confined to history. In 1984 Harry Blundred of Devon General introduced his minibus revolution to the city and proper buses, both single and double deckers, were to disappear from the streets of Exeter and most of Devon for the following decade. This trend was to be reversed in 1996 when Stagecoach Devon took over the running of local and rural bus services in the Exeter area.

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