Dolphin Hotel, Plymouth

Early 19th century pub with good frontage including 'The Dolphin Hotel' and fishes picked out in stone. Note the 'OB' stained glass windows as this was an Octagon Brewery pub. inside it is now just one large room but two front doors indicate it was originally two rooms at one time but has been one room since the early 1950s. It has been run by four generations of the same family. It was extended to the front right in the 1970s by purchasing the former post office, a flat roofed building. In 2010 the red screeded/stone floor was replaced with slate looking tiles with new red and black quarry tiles near the bar at the insistence of 'the authorities'. It still retains a Victorian counter painted blue on the front. The bar back fitting is mainly a stillage with some shelving on the top of it and is also old. Inevitably a fridge has replaced a small part of the stillage. The stillage is protected by unique screens advertising Draught Bass dating from the 1980s when the pub was sold by Courage. Old dado on the walls on the left and the leatherette benches may be old. Note the lovely Victorian coloured glass on the door to the private quarters and the piano here is still played. The Tolpuddle Martyrs are reputedly to have stayed here - when they returned to England in 1836 they disembarked at Plymouth.