Exeter High Street, 1920, Exeter

Photograph of Exeter High Street, 1920, Exeter

Here is an Express & Echo photograph of Exeter High Street. It was taken in 1920 and shows the row of shops adjoining St Lawrence's Church. The church itself and the neighbouring Empire Electric Theatre are obscured by the tram, which is travelling towards London Inn Square. The photograph was probably taken from the vicinity of St Stephen's Bow. The buildings were all destroyed in the blitz. To put this image in to a present-day perspective, the site of the church is now occupied by the Co-operative Bank and there is a memorial plaque to St Lawrence's Church on the exterior wall of that building.

Two of the businesses featured in this picture, William Bruford & Son at No. 241 High Street and Luget Bros at 242 High Street, not only survived the blitz but continued to trade successfully into the 21st century. Bruford's the jewellers spent the immediate post war years operating from a shop in Central Station Buildings, Queen Street, before relocating to new premises situated on the corner of Bedford Street and High Street in the mid-1950s. The company remained there until 2000, before moving for a final time to a unit in the Guildhall Shopping Centre. Bruford's closed down in 2014, having traded in Exeter for 115 years. The firm had fallen victim, along with other small traders, to plans for transforming the Queen Street end of the Guildhall Centre into a trendy 'Dining Quarter'.

Luget Bros were tailors and they took over 242 High Street in 1882, but they relocated to No. 261 High Street in 1932. That building was also destroyed in 1942 and the post war years saw them operating from a shop in Little Castle Street. The firm finally moved to premises in Cathedral Yard in 2000, where it remained until it ceased trading in 2015.

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