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© Copyright Derek Harper and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
The Turks Head was situated at 202 High Street. This grade-II listed pub is now used as a branch of Prezzos.
Under some ancient rule it had to pay the princely sum of 1d (One old Penny) per year to the Guildhall next door for the privilege of leaning on the Guildhall walls. The Dickens bar was a disused wreck of a place until my Godmother, Mrs G W Abell, convinced the brewers to spend money and restore the bar after she took over the pub in 1952. This bar also had a food buffet and a roped off corner alcove which housed a chair supposedly used by Charles Dickens. I lived in this pub from 1952 to 1955.
Keith Wesley
The Landlady in the 1950s, G. Wesley Abell, was a friend of my parents who first met her when she ran the City of London pub on City Road, Finsbury, London. After leaving London at the end of the war, Mrs Abell ran a pub in Exmouth before taking on the Turks Head. For a number of years she also ran the Alexandra Inn at Broadclyst Station. When she retired, she had a B&B in Exeter until she died.
George Boston (October 2016)
Reopened 1st September 2021 with accommodation and a micro-brewery.
Tim Parsons (September 2021)
Listed building details:
Long established Inn which suffered from fire C19. Good carved Turk's Head. Dickens is supposed to have met the Fat Boy here. Rendered C18/C19 front on an older timber framed building. Modern public house frontage. Four storeys, two windows on the first and second floors, one above, C19 sashes in flush frames. Parapet with a half hipped gabled slate roof behind, not visible from the street. Rear frontage on Waterbeer Street. Early C19 front. Two storeys. Modern bar frontage. Three C19 sashes in flush frames above. Slate mansard roof. Included for group value.
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Other Photos
Picture source: Hania Franek
Date of picture: 1950s	Picture source: Clive Schneidau
Date of picture: 1950s	Picture source: Clive Schneidau