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If you're meeting anyone in town before drinking more beer, a good meeting place is The Wellhouse in Cathedral Yard. It is central and never so packed that you can't move. The booze is pretty good too, normally with a small selection of guest ales. Food is served at lunchtime, though I've never seen it served during the evening. The bar is owned by the same people that own the Royal Clarence Hotel next door.

Royal Clarence

This Hotel was built and established in 1770 having been built by William Praed (an Exeter Banker) in 1769 on the site of Sir Walter Raliegh's family town house. The main part of the hotel was built as assembly rooms with the right hand part next to Martin's Lane being Praed's Bank (Exeter's first Bank, the Exeter Bank).

Another Hotel once occupied a site on the South Street side of the War Memorial in Cathedral Yard, this was the Globe Hotel which was destroyed by incendaries. Click here for an old advert which also incorporates a line drawing. More information on the Globe can be found in the Bygone section (select Central).
This was also the site of the Cathedral's Little Stile Gate, more of which later. The Three Gables, are another interesting feature of this the corner of Cathedral Yard to the side of St Mary Major Green (close to the granite war memorial). The Church of St Mary Major was demolished in 1971, the iron cross that used to stand on the spire marks the site. The three houses comprising the gables were built originally in 1540 and occupied by craftsmen attached to the Cathedral. The present buildings are C17th re-buildings of the originals.

Downstairs via a doorway to the right of the bar is a stone stairway that'll take you down to a cellar where you can see the skeleton, a victim of Black Death and also what is left of the well after which the pub has been named. The remains are in fact those of a tall middle aged man (5ft 9 ins) with the pelvic bone and arm bones of a woman dating from the same period. Above the case in which the two are laid is the legend, "Birth is the first step unto death".

The archways in the cellar are from an earlier period than the building itself. During Norman times a Hall was situated on this site, this was removed in C15th when it was replaced with a tennement. The C17th saw the addition of the top three floors.

The pub was built on part of the Cathedral graveyard and is an amalgam of two premises, 16 and 17 Cathedral Yard. These buildings as one might expect were either private residences or shops or both.

Exeter became a Cathedral City in 1050 when the Bishop Of Crediton, Leofric was granted permission by Edward the Confessor to change the Bishop's 'stool' from Crediton to Exeter. Athelstan's Church of 932 was burned down by the Danes in 1004. A further church built by Canute in 1019 became Exeter's first Cathedral and this remained so until William Warelwast started the Norman Cathedral in 1112. It was dedicated on 21st November 1133, although not quite finished. Bishop Warelwast, was a nephew of William The Conqueror.

Much of layout you see today was overseen by a mid 13th century Bishop, Walter Bronescombe, he was succeeded by Bishop Peter Quivel (or Quinel), who continued with the development of the area, however despite the early exploits of the aforementioned Bishops, the cathedral fell into neglect and in the 1870's Sir Gilbert Scott restored the building and this is mostly what we are able to see today. The two towers you see are actually named, the north tower (the one nearest to you) is St Paul's and the other one is St John's. The stone is Beer Stone.

The North Transept houses a clock, one of only four of it's type in England. More than 600 years old it shows the earth at its centre with the moon travelling around it. Just above the clock in the North Tower hangs a 5.25 ton bell. Peter as its known was procured for the Cathedral from Llandaff in the 15th century. It was cracked by an over-zealous bell ringer during a ringing to commemorate the gunpowder plot. For a more detailed description of the Cathedral why not visit the Cathedral's own website available through the links page. Click here for a summary of who did what and when.

Richard Hooker's statue is also visible from your seat, he was born in Heavitree in 1554 and wrote Ecclesiastical Polity which might not be a bedtime read but was at the time revolutionary. The Hooker link will tell you more. The statue sits in Cathedral Green which was the most popular burial place for Exonians until 1636. A cemetery in Bartholomew Street was opened in 1637 because of the health hazards caused by the accumulation of corpses and burial mounds. When the memorial in front of the cathedral was erected and the area paved in the late seventies more bone was excavated than soil.

As you leave the Wellhouse, turn left towards Martin's Lane. On your way you'll see Mol's Coffee House displaying the date "1596". The building was part of what was a larger building built in 1529 to house the Annuellar Priests. These were a group of priests who would pray for your soul on the anniversary of your death if they had been left a sum of money to do so. The reformation put a stop to this practice. In 1549, Mols was subdivided when leased from the Dean & Chapter. The Dutch gable was added in the late C19th when it was an art gallery. Prior to that it was the residence of John Glendall, an artist who bought it in 1829. It has also been a jewelers in the past and is now a map specialist.

The Elizabethan frontage is supposed to resemble the prow of a galleon and was added around 60 years before the place became a Coffee House. The building became the haunt of both Drake and Raleigh. When coffee was introduced to England it was opened as a coffee house by an Italian called Mol and remained popular until 1829. There are over 230 panes of glass in the windows and none are square.