Plymouth: Where the Navy Meets the Ocean
Plymouth faces the Atlantic. The city wraps around Plymouth Sound, one of the finest natural harbours in Europe, and has been a naval port since at least the Elizabethan era. Sir Francis Drake supposedly finished his game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe before sailing out to meet the Spanish Armada in 1588. The Mayflower Steps on the Barbican mark the Pilgrim Fathers' 1620 departure for the New World — a fact that carries more weight in American history than it sometimes does locally.
Devonport, the western district of the city, hosts HMNB Devonport, the largest naval base in Western Europe. The Royal Navy's presence runs through Plymouth's economy like a spine: directly through defence employment, indirectly through the supply chain, housing market, and population demographics. Babcock International manages the dockyard, refitting nuclear submarines and surface vessels. The Citadel, a 17th-century fortress still in military use, overlooks the Hoe and the Sound.
The city centre was heavily bombed during the Blitz — the Plan for Plymouth, drawn up by Patrick Abercrombie and James Paton Watson, rebuilt it on modernist principles with wide boulevards and concrete civic buildings. Royal Parade and Armada Way give the centre a breadth unusual for an English city of this size. The University of Plymouth, one of the largest in the south-west, brings a student population that supports the Barbican's pubs, the independent shops on the Ridgeway at Plympton, and the cultural programme at Theatre Royal Plymouth, one of the UK's largest regional producing theatres.
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Plymouth faces the Atlantic. The city wraps around Plymouth Sound, one of the finest natural harbours in Europe, and has been a naval port since at least the Elizabethan era. Sir Francis Drake supposedly finished his game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe before sailing out to meet the Spanish Armada in 1588. The Mayflower Steps on the Barbican mark the Pilgrim Fathers' 1620 departure for the New World — a fact that carries more weight in American history than it sometimes does locally.
Devonport, the western district of the city, hosts HMNB Devonport, the largest naval base in Western Europe. The Royal Navy's presence runs through Plymouth's economy like a spine: directly through defence employment, indirectly through the supply chain, housing market, and population demographics. Babcock International manages the dockyard, refitting nuclear submarines and surface vessels. The Citadel, a 17th-century fortress still in military use, overlooks the Hoe and the Sound.
The city centre was heavily bombed during the Blitz — the Plan for Plymouth, drawn up by Patrick Abercrombie and James Paton Watson, rebuilt it on modernist principles with wide boulevards and concrete civic buildings. Royal Parade and Armada Way give the centre a breadth unusual for an English city of this size. The University of Plymouth, one of the largest in the south-west, brings a student population that supports the Barbican's pubs, the independent shops on the Ridgeway at Plympton, and the cultural programme at Theatre Royal Plymouth, one of the UK's largest regional producing theatres.
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