Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Drinking & Nightlife
D2
33
Old Timers
C2
A3
35
Timepiece
C2
Entertainment
B3
C2
B4
39
Mama Stone's
B3
Shopping
D2
B4
History
Exeter's past can be read clearly in its buildings. In around AD 55, invading Romans built
a fortress ringed by a 2-mile defensive wall. Saxon and Norman times saw growth: a
castle went up in 1068, the cathedral 40 years later. The Tudor woollen boom brought
Exeter riches and half timbered houses; all those sheep in surrounding fields meant wool
was brought to the city, dyed, and the cloth exported via Exeter Quay to Europe.
By the late Georgian era, Exeter was a genteel urban centre, its merchants busy building
elegant town houses, many of which now house hotels and B&Bs. The Blitz of WWII
brought devastation. In just one night in 1942, 156 people died and 12 hectares of the city
were flattened. The postwar years saw an ambitious rebuild in red brick and cream stone;
see its clean lines above the main street shopfronts. Fast forward to the 21st century and
the attention-grabbing £220-million Princesshay Shopping Centre. Part blue cubes, part
echoes of 1950s designs, its shimmering glass and steel lines snake through the centre,
adding another architectural notch in the city's timeline.