Plymouth, England's ocean city

Plymouth is England's sea city par excellence. Overlooking one of the finest natural harbours in Europe, Plymouth Sound, on the border between Devon and Cornwall, it was for centuries the launch pad for the great voyages of British history: from here Francis Drake set out to sail around the world, the Pilgrim Fathers of the Mayflower left for America, James Cook headed for the Pacific and Charles Darwin sailed on the Beagle. Home to the largest naval base in western Europe, flattened by bombs in 1941 and rebuilt to a bold modern plan, Plymouth now calls itself Britain's Ocean City: a lively port with an old quarter of cobbled lanes, the country's largest aquarium, the oldest working gin distillery in England and a spectacular seafront, a stone's throw from the moors of Dartmoor and the beaches of Cornwall.

Plymouth at a glance

The city has about 265,000 inhabitants and is the largest in the south-western peninsula of England. It lies between the mouths of two rivers, the Plym, which gives it its name, and the Tamar, which marks the border with Cornwall, on the shore of a great bay protected by a breakwater built in the 19th century. It only gained city status in 1928, but it has been one of the kingdom's most important ports for centuries. It has a large university, the University of Plymouth, renowned for marine science, and is home to the Marine Biological Association, one of the oldest marine biology institutes in the world. In 2019 the waters of Plymouth Sound were declared the UK's first National Marine Park. Locals are jokingly known as Janners.

The history of Plymouth

The navigators' port

In the Middle Ages Plymouth was a fishing village called Sutton, which grew up around the harbour where the Barbican district stands today. Its position, facing France and the Atlantic, soon made it a military and trading port. Its golden age was the Elizabethan era: the Queen's great seamen and privateers lived here, such as John Hawkins and his cousin Francis Drake, who in 1580 returned to Plymouth after completing his circumnavigation of the globe, the first captain to do so in command of his own ship from start to finish. In 1588, according to a famous legend, Drake was playing bowls on Plymouth Hoe when news arrived that the Spanish Armada had been sighted, and he insisted on finishing the game before setting sail: there was time, because the tide did not yet allow the ships to leave harbour.

In September 1620 the Mayflower, with about a hundred Puritan settlers on board, sailed from Plymouth for the New World, where the Pilgrim Fathers founded a colony to which they gave the same name as the city. In 1768 James Cook left from here on the Endeavour for his first voyage to the Pacific, and in December 1831 the young Charles Darwin sailed on the Beagle on the voyage that would lead him to formulate the theory of evolution. In 1815, after Waterloo, Napoleon was held for some days aboard HMS Bellerophon anchored in the Sound, watched by thousands of sightseers in boats, before being exiled to St Helena.

Fortresses and naval base

After the Civil War, during which the town withstood a long Royalist siege, King Charles II had the massive Royal Citadel built in the 1660s, with some of its guns pointing at the town, which had sided with Parliament. At the end of the 17th century the Devonport dockyard was founded on the banks of the Tamar, and it became the largest base of the Royal Navy; it remains the largest naval base in western Europe today. In 1759 the engineer John Smeaton completed the Eddystone lighthouse, on a reef in the open sea, the prototype of modern lighthouses; when the rock beneath began to erode, the upper part was dismantled and rebuilt on the Hoe, where it can be visited today as Smeaton's Tower. In 1859 Brunel opened the Royal Albert Bridge over the Tamar, which carried the railway into Cornwall.

The Blitz and the new city

In 1919 Plymouth made political history: its Sutton constituency elected Nancy Astor, the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons. Because of its military importance, during the Second World War the city was one of the hardest hit in England: in the raids of 1941, the Plymouth Blitz, the historic centre was razed and more than a thousand civilians were killed. Even before the war ended, the planner Patrick Abercrombie prepared the Plan for Plymouth, which redesigned the centre with broad straight boulevards, such as Armada Way running down towards the sea, and modernist buildings now partly listed. Not everyone likes the result, but it is one of the most complete examples of post-war reconstruction in Britain.

What to see in Plymouth

The Hoe and the seafront

The city's emblem is Plymouth Hoe, a broad lawn on top of the cliff overlooking Plymouth Sound, with views stretching from Drake's Island to the hills of Cornwall. Here stand the statue of Drake, the great naval memorial and the red-and-white tower of Smeaton's Tower, from whose top the view is even wider. Below the cliff, Tinside Lido, an art deco open-air pool of 1935 opening onto the sea, is one of the city's most photographed spots in summer. Along the seafront you can walk to the Royal Citadel, still an army barracks, which can be visited on guided tours.

The Barbican and Sutton Harbour

The Barbican is the old quarter that survived the bombs, a maze of cobbled lanes, Elizabethan houses, galleries, pubs and restaurants overlooking Sutton Harbour, where fishing boats still moor. Here are the Mayflower Steps, the memorial marking the departure of the Pilgrim Fathers, with plaques recalling other famous voyages, and the Elizabethan House, a perfectly preserved 16th-century captain's home. In the same area stands the Plymouth Gin distillery, working since 1793 in a former Dominican friary, the oldest working gin distillery in England: you can visit and taste its smooth gin, once supplied to every ship in the Royal Navy.

Museums and aquarium

The National Marine Aquarium, on the opposite side of the harbour, is the largest aquarium in the UK, with a ten-metre-deep ocean tank and sharks, rays and turtles. The Box, the city's large museum and cultural centre opened in 2020, combines collections of history, art, archaeology and archives, with a spectacular hall of ships' figureheads suspended from the ceiling and exhibitions on the Mayflower and the history of Native American peoples.

The post-war centre

Lovers of 20th-century architecture will find Plymouth's centre a unique case study. The monumental axis of Armada Way links the station to the Hoe with a long promenade, recently redesigned with new gardens, fountains and play areas, after the overnight felling of more than a hundred trees in 2023 sparked protests from residents. Along it stand the Portland stone buildings of the 1950s, such as the Pearl Assurance building and the former Dingles department store, and the Civic Centre, a listed modernist tower being converted into homes. At the Charles Cross roundabout, the ruins of Charles Church, gutted by the bombs of 1941, have been left as a memorial to the civilian victims. The Theatre Royal, one of the largest theatres in the south-west, hosts national touring productions and musicals, and the Drake Circus shopping centre draws shoppers from across the region.

Royal William Yard and Mount Edgcumbe

West of the centre, Royal William Yard is a grand complex of granite military warehouses from the 1820s and 1830s, designed by John Rennie to supply the fleet with food and beer. Restored, it now houses restaurants, bars, flats and galleries, and is one of the most pleasant places in the city for dinner by the sea. From here or from the small Admiral's Hard slipway, a ferry crosses the Tamar to Cremyll in Cornwall, home to Mount Edgcumbe Country Park, with a Tudor house, Italian, French and English gardens and coastal paths.

The sea and nature

Plymouth is the ideal place for sea lovers: you can take boat trips around the Sound and along the Tamar, go kayaking, dive on wrecks, sail and paddleboard. In summer people swim in the seaside pools and coves below the Hoe. The South West Coast Path, England's longest coastal trail, passes through the city. Less than half an hour's drive away lies Dartmoor, a national park of wild moorland, hills crowned by granite outcrops called tors, free-roaming ponies and ancient prehistoric settlements.

Eating and drinking

Plymouth's speciality is fish: the Sutton Harbour fish market is one of the most important in England, and the restaurants of the Barbican and Royal William Yard serve seafood, crab and fresh fish. In Devon you enjoy a cream tea, with scones, clotted cream and jam: in Devon the cream goes on first and the jam on top, in Cornwall, just across the Tamar, the other way round, and it is a hotly debated subject. From neighbouring Cornwall comes the pasty, a pastry parcel filled with meat and vegetables. And of course you drink Plymouth Gin, perhaps in a cocktail.

Events

In August the British Fireworks Championships light up Plymouth Sound over two nights, with thousands of spectators on the Hoe and on boats. Through the year there are maritime festivals, regattas, Armed Forces Day and a pirates festival. In 2020 the city marked four hundred years since the Mayflower voyage with a programme of events that also involved the Wampanoag Native American nation.

Living in Plymouth

Plymouth offers a quality of life valued by those who love the sea and the outdoors, with house prices and rents below the average for southern England. The economy revolves around the Devonport naval base and dockyard, still the largest private employer in the area, the university, healthcare, tourism and marine science. The city also has deprived areas and wages below the national average, however, and its peripheral position, three hours by train from London, is seen by many as a drawback. The city's football club, Plymouth Argyle, nicknamed The Pilgrims, plays at Home Park and is the most south-westerly professional club in England.

Practical information

• Getting there: Plymouth no longer has an airport; the nearest is Exeter, about an hour away. By train you arrive from London Paddington in about three hours. The city is also a ferry port: Brittany Ferries links Plymouth with Roscoff in Brittany and Santander in Spain.
• Getting around: the centre, the Hoe and the Barbican are walkable; ferries and buses cover the rest.
• When to go: from May to September for the sea and events; the climate is among the mildest in Britain.
• How long to stay: two days for the city, longer for Dartmoor and Cornwall.

Day trips

• Dartmoor: moorland, granite tors, ponies and stone villages such as Widecombe-in-the-Moor; the prison at Princetown and the legends behind The Hound of the Baskervilles.
• Cornwall: across the Tamar, the fishing villages of Looe and Polperro, the Rame peninsula and, further afield, St Ives, Tintagel and the Eden Project's tropical biomes.
• Buckland Abbey: the abbey Francis Drake turned into his home, now owned by the National Trust, with the famous Drake's Drum.
• Dartmouth and Salcombe: two delightful harbour towns on the South Devon coast.
• Exeter: the cathedral city, under an hour away by train.

See also British cities, the British Empire and England.

Plymouth on the map

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