Plymouth

Plymouth
City and unitary authority
Top: West Hoe Upper: Smeaton's Tower; Barbican Lower: New George Street; Royal Albert Bridge Bottom: the Guildhall;Royal William Yard
Postcode district		PL1–9
Area code	01752
Police	Devon and Cornwall
Ambulance	South Western
Fire	Devon and Somerset
Website	plymouth.gov.uk

Plymouth (/ˈplɪməθ/ ^ⓘ PLIH-məth) is a port city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers Plym and Tamar, about 36 miles (58 km) southwest of Exeter and 193 miles (311 km) southwest of London. It is the most populous city south of London.

Plymouth's history extends back to the

.

After absorbing nearby settlements in 1914, the borough was awarded city status in 1928. During World War II, Plymouth suffered extensive damage in the Plymouth Blitz, leading to post-war rebuilding that significantly shaped its modern appearance. A further expansion of its boundaries in 1967 contributed to its current status as the 30th-most populous built-up area in the UK and the second-largest city in the South West after Bristol, with a population in 2022 of 266,862.

Plymouth's economy, historically rooted in shipbuilding and seafaring, has transitioned towards a service-based economy since the 1990s. It maintains strong maritime connections, hosting HMNB Devonport, the largest operational naval base in Western Europe, and offering ferry links to Brittany and Spain. The city is also home to the University of Plymouth, reflecting its educational and cultural significance. Today, the city is governed locally by Plymouth City Council and is represented nationally by two Members of Parliament.

History

Early history

The settlement of

Early defence and Renaissance

During the

In the late fifteenth century, Plymouth Castle, a "castle quadrate", was constructed close to the area now known as The Barbican; it included four round towers, one at each corner, as featured on the city coat of arms.^[17]

The castle served to protect

During the 16th century, locally produced wool was the major export commodity.

. In 1588, according to legend, Drake insisted on completing his game of bowls on the Hoe before engaging the Spanish Armada.^[23] In 1620 the Pilgrims set sail for the New World from Plymouth, establishing Plymouth Colony – the second English colony in what is now the United States of America.^[24] In 1625, the town Mayor estimated that African slavers captured that summer about 1,000 villagers from the area, to be sold in Africa.^[25]

During the English Civil War Plymouth sided with the Parliamentarians and was besieged for almost four years by the Royalists.^[26] The last major attack by the Royalists was by Sir Richard Grenville leading thousands of soldiers towards Plymouth, but they were defeated by the Plymothians at Freedom Fields Park.^[26][27] The civil war ended as a Parliamentary win, but monarchy was restored by King Charles II in 1660, who imprisoned many of the Parliamentary heroes on Drake's Island.^[26] Construction of the Royal Citadel began in 1665, after the Restoration; it was armed with cannon facing both out to sea and into the town, rumoured to be a reminder to residents not to oppose the Crown.^[28] Mount Batten tower also dates from around this time.^[29]

Plymouth Dock, naval power and Foulston

Devonport

Millbay Docks

, March 1926

Throughout the 17th century, Plymouth had gradually lost its pre-eminence as a trading port. By the mid-17th century, commodities manufactured elsewhere in England cost too much to transport to Plymouth, and the city had no means of processing sugar or tobacco imports, major products from the colonies. Local sailors turning to piracy such as Henry Every became infamous, celebrated in the London play The Successful Pyrate. It played a part in the Atlantic slave trade during the early 18th century, although it was relatively small.^[21]

In the nearby parish of

Before the latter half of the 18th century, grain, timber and then coal were Plymouth's main imports.

Local chemist

The 1-mile-long (2 km) Breakwater in Plymouth Sound was designed by

Some of the most significant imports to Plymouth from the Americas and Europe during the latter half of the 19th century included maize, wheat, barley, sugar cane, guano, sodium nitrate and phosphate.^[37] Aside from the dockyard in the town of Devonport, industries in Plymouth such as the gasworks, the railways and tramways, and a number of small chemical works had begun to develop in the 19th century, continuing into the 20th century.^[38]

Plan for Plymouth 1943

During the

During the Second World War,

The redevelopment of the city was planned by

The Plan for Plymouth was, on the one hand, a template for the rapid reassembly of a destroyed city centre, but Abercrombie also took the opportunity to lay out a whole hierarchy of settlements across the city of communities, neighbourhoods and districts. Central to this was a revision of transport infrastructure that prioritised the position of the railway as a gateway to the city centre and provided in the long-term for a dual carriageway road by-pass that only finally came into being in the 1980s (forty years after being planned). The plan is the subject of Jill Craigie's documentary The Way We Live (1946).

By 1964 over 20,000 new homes had been built, transforming the dense overcrowded and unsanitary slums of the pre-war city into a low density, dispersed suburbia.

Post-war, Devonport Dockyard was kept busy refitting aircraft carriers such as the

Governance

As a

Administrative history

The first record of the existence of a settlement at Plymouth was in the

Plymouth was reformed to become a

Plymouth was granted city status on 18 October 1928.^[57] Between 1439 and 1935, Plymouth had a mayor.^[58] In 1935 the city was given the right to appoint a Lord Mayor. The city's boundaries further expanded in 1967 to include the town of Plympton and the parish of Plymstock.^[10]

The 1971 Local Government White Paper proposed abolishing county boroughs, which would have left Plymouth, a town of 250,000 people, being administered from a council based at the smaller Exeter, on the other side of the county. This led to Plymouth lobbying for the creation of a Tamarside county, to include Plymouth, Torpoint, Saltash, and the rural hinterland.^[59] The campaign was not successful, and Plymouth ceased to be a county borough on 1 April 1974 with responsibility for education, social services, highways and libraries transferred to Devon County Council. All powers returned when the city became a unitary authority on 1 April 1998 under recommendations of the Banham Commission.^[60]

Constituencies

In the

In 1919,

Waldorf Astor

on his elevation to the peerage. Lady Astor was a vibrantly active campaigner for her resident constituents.

In 1945, Plymouth-born

(1980–1983).

City Council

Welfare State; a listed building

since 2007

The City of Plymouth is divided into 20

Plymouth was granted the dignity of

The Lord Mayor's official residence is 3 Elliot Terrace, located on the Hoe.^[67] Once a home of Waldorf and Nancy Astor, it was given by Lady Astor to the City of Plymouth as an official residence for future Lord Mayors and is also used today for civic hospitality, as lodgings for visiting dignitaries and High Court judges and it is also available to hire for private events.^[67] The Civic Centre municipal office building in Armada Way became a listed building in June 2007 because of its quality and period features, but has become the centre of a controversy as the council planned for its demolition estimating that it could cost £40m to refurbish it, resulting in possible job losses.^[68]

Geography

Plymouth lies between the River Plym to the east and the River Tamar to the west; both rivers flow into the natural harbour of Plymouth Sound.^[69] Since 1967, the unitary authority of Plymouth has included the, once independent, towns of Plympton and Plymstock which lie along the east of the River Plym.^[10] The River Tamar forms the county boundary between Devon and Cornwall and its estuary forms the Hamoaze on which is sited Devonport Dockyard.^[69]

The River Plym, which flows off

Geologically, Plymouth has a mixture of limestone, Devonian slate, granite and Middle Devonian limestone.^[73] Plymouth Sound, Shores and Cliffs is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, because of its geology.^[74] The bulk of the city is built upon Upper Devonian slates and shales and the headlands at the entrance to Plymouth Sound are formed of Lower Devonian slates, which can withstand the power of the sea.^[73]

A band of Middle Devonian limestone runs west to east from Cremyll to Plymstock including the Hoe.^[73] Local limestone may be seen in numerous buildings, walls and pavements throughout Plymouth.^[73] To the north and northeast of the city is the granite mass of Dartmoor; the granite was mined and exported via Plymouth. Rocks brought down the Tamar from Dartmoor include ores containing tin, copper, tungsten, lead and other minerals.^[73] There is evidence that the middle Devonian limestone belt at the south edge of Plymouth and in Plymstock was quarried at West Hoe, Cattedown and Radford.^[75]

Urban form

On 27 April 1944 Sir Patrick Abercrombie's Plan for Plymouth to rebuild the bomb-damaged city was published; it called for demolition of the few remaining pre-War buildings in the city centre to make way for their replacement with wide, parallel, modern boulevards aligned east–west linked by a north–south avenue (Armada Way) linking the railway station with the vista of Plymouth Hoe.^[43]

A peripheral road system connecting the historic Barbican on the east and Union Street to the west determines the principal form of the city centre, even following pedestrianisation of the shopping centre in the late 1980s, and continues to inform the present 'Vision for Plymouth' developed by a team led by Barcelona-based architect David MacKay in 2003 which calls for revivification of the city centre with mixed-use and residential.^[76]

In suburban areas, post-War

Plymouth is home to 28 parks with an average size of 45,638 square metres (491,240 sq ft).

Central Park is the home of Plymouth Argyle Football Club and a number of other leisure facilities.

The Plymouth Plan 2019–2034 was published May 2019 and sets the direction for future development with a new spatial strategy

Climate

Plymouth has a moderated temperate oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb) which is wetter and milder than the rest of England. This means a wide range of exotic plants, palm trees, and yuccas can be cultivated. The annual mean high temperature is approximately 14 °C (57 °F). Due to the moderating effect of the sea and the south-westerly location, the climate is among the mildest of British cities, and one of the warmest UK cities in winter.^[82] The coldest month of February is similarly moderate, having mild mean minimum temperatures between 3 and 4 °C (37 and 39 °F). Snow usually falls in small amounts but a noteworthy recent exception was the period of the European winter storms of 2009–10 which, in early January 2010, covered Plymouth in at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) of snow; more on higher ground. Another notable event was the 8 inches (20 cm) of snowfall between 17 and 19 December 2010 – though only 2 inches (5.1 cm) would lie at any one time due to melting. Over the 1961–1990 period, annual snowfall accumulation averaged less than 7 cm (3 in) per year.^[83]

South West England has a favoured location when the Azores High pressure area extends north-eastwards towards the UK, particularly in summer. Coastal areas have average annual sunshine totals over 1,600 hours.^[84]

Owing to its geographic location, rainfall tends to be associated with Atlantic

Typically, the warmest day of the year (1971–2000) will achieve a temperature of 28.6 °C (83 °F),[85] although in July 2022 the temperature reached 33.9 °C (93.0 °F),^[86] the site record. On average, 4.25 days^[87] of the year will report a maximum temperature of 25.1 °C (77 °F) or above. During the winter half of the year, the coldest night will typically fall to −4.1 °C (25 °F)^[88] although in January 1979 the temperature fell to −8.8 °C (16 °F).^[89] Typically, 18.6 nights^[90] of the year will register an air frost.

Climate data for Plymouth (normals for 1961-1990)[97]
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Mean number of days with precipitation > 10.0 mm (0.39 in)	4	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	4	32
Mean number of days with thunder	1	0	0	0	1	1	2	1	1	1	0	0	8
Mean number of days with hail	2	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	10
Mean number of days with snow on ground	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Mean number of days with air frost	6	6	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	22
Mean number of days grass frost	11	11	11	8	2	0	0	0	0	2	8	10	63

Education

There are three universities based in Plymouth, the

.

The University of Plymouth enrolls 23,155 total students as of 2018/2019 (

South West

.

The University of St Mark & St John (known as "Marjon" or "Marjons") specialises in teacher training, and offers training across the country and abroad.^[103]

Arts University Plymouth offers a selection of courses including media. It was originally founded as the Plymouth Drawing School in 1856, and in December 2008, Plymouth College of Art and Design was renamed to Plymouth College of Art. In May 2022, the College was awarded University status, and became Arts University Plymouth.^[104]

The city is also home to two large colleges. The City College Plymouth provides courses from the most basic to Foundation degrees for approximately 26,000 students.^[105]

Plymouth also has 71 state primary phase schools, 13 state secondary schools, eight special schools and three selective state grammar schools, Devonport High School for Girls, Devonport High School for Boys and Plymouth High School for Girls.^[106] There is also an independent school Plymouth College.

The city was also home to the

Plymouth is home to the

A scheme is in operation over summer 2018 to provide meals during the summer holidays for children with parents on a low income, the parents cannot afford to provide their children with healthy meals.[109]

UPSU also known as the University of Plymouth Student Union is based underground near the library. Every student at the University of Plymouth is a member of UPSU. The Union employs students across the University, from bar staff to events technicians. Every year the students at the University have an opportunity to vote which sabbatical officers represent them. In 2019 over 4000 students voted in the UPSU elections.

Demography

From the 2011 Census, the

This excludes the two new ethnic groups added to the 2011 census of Gypsy or Irish Traveller and Arab. The population rose rapidly during the second half of the 19th century, but declined by over 1.6% from 1931 to 1951.

Plymouth's gross value added (a measure of the size of its economy) was £5,169 million in 2013 making up 25% of Devon's GVA.^[115] Its GVA per person was £19,943 and compared to the national average of £23,755, was £3,812 lower.^[115] Plymouth's unemployment rate was 7.0% in 2014 which was 2.0 points higher than the South West average and 0.8 points higher than the average for Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland).^[116]

A 2014 profile by the National Health Service showed Plymouth had higher than average levels of poverty and deprivation (26.2% of the population among the poorest 20.4% nationally).^[117] Life expectancy, at 78.3 years for men and 82.1 for women, was the lowest of any region in the South West of England.^{[citation needed]}

Ethnic Group	Year
	1991[118]		2001[119]		2011[120]		2021[121]
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
White: Total	241,233	99.1%	236,767	98.4%	246,509	96.1%	248,727	94.1%
White: British	–	–	232,377	96.5%	238,263	92.9%	236,802	89.5%
White: Irish	–	–	1,359	0.6%	1,105		1,055	0.4%
White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller	–	–	–	–	153		165	0.1%
White: Roma							168	0.1%
White: Other	–	–	3,031		6,988		10,537	4.0%
Asian or Asian British : Total	971	0.4%	1,427	0.6%	3,906	1.5%	5,947	2.1%
Asian or Asian British: Indian	209		258		875		1,403	0.5%
Asian or Asian British: Pakistani	53		83		202		389	0.1%
Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi	105		152		359		537	0.2%
Asian or Asian British: Chinese	382		685		1,251		1,430	0.5%
Asian or Asian British: Other Asian	222		249		1,219		2188	0.8%
Black or Black British: Total	621	0.3%	451	0.2%	1,678	0.7%	2,786	1.1%
Black or Black British: African	180		230		1,106		2,022	0.8%
Black or Black British: Caribbean	177		165		343		460	0.2%
Black or Black British: Other Black	264		56		229		304	0.1%
Mixed or British Mixed: Total	–	–	1,559	0.6%	3,287	1.3%	4,656	1.7%
Mixed: White and Black Caribbean	–	–	420		904		1,108	0.4%
Mixed: White and Black African	–	–	246		523		860	0.3%
Mixed: White and Asian	–	–	498		1,028		1,349	0.5%
Mixed: Other Mixed	–	–	395		832		1,339	0.5%
Other: Total	548	0.3%	516	0.6%	944	0.4%	2,579	1%
Other: Arab					339		677	0.3%
Other: Any other ethnic group	548	0.3%	516	0.6%	605		1,902	0.7%
Total	243,373	100%	240,720	100%	256,384	100%	264,695	100%

Economy

Because of its coastal location, the economy of Plymouth has traditionally been maritime,^[123] in particular the defence sector with over 12,000 people employed and approximately 7,500 in the armed forces.^[124] The Plymouth Gin Distillery has been producing Plymouth Gin since 1793, which was exported around the world by the Royal Navy.^[125] During the 1930s, it was the most widely distributed gin and had a controlled term of origin^[125] until 2015. Since the 1980s, employment in the defence sector has decreased substantially and the public sector is now prominent particularly in administration, health, education, medicine and engineering.^[124]

Devonport Dockyard is the UK's only naval base that refits nuclear submarines and the Navy estimates that the Dockyard generates about 10% of Plymouth's income.^[122] Plymouth has the largest cluster of marine and maritime businesses in the south west with 270 firms operating within the sector.^[126] Other substantial employers include the university with almost 3,000 staff,^[99] the national retail chain The Range at their Estover headquarters, as well as the Plymouth Science Park employing 500 people in 50 companies.^[124]

Plymouth has a post-war shopping area in the city centre with substantial pedestrianisation.

Plymouth 2020

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2017)

Since 2003, Plymouth Council has been undertaking a project of urban redevelopment called the "Vision for Plymouth" launched by the architect David Mackay and backed by both Plymouth City Council and the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce (PCC).^[76] With the aim of growing the population to 300,000 by building 33,000 new dwellings, its projects range from shopping centres, new public realm, a cruise terminal, rebalancing the underutilised city centre retail district and opening waterfront development linked by a new urban boulevard.^[76]

In 2004 the old Drake Circus shopping centre and Charles Cross car park were demolished and replaced by the latest Drake Circus Shopping Centre, which opened in October 2006.^[132] It received negative feedback before opening when David Mackay said it was already "ten years out of date".^[132] It was awarded the first ever Carbuncle Cup, awarded for Britain's ugliest building, in 2006.^[133] In contrast, the Theatre Royal's production and education centre, TR2, which was built on wasteland at Cattedown, was a runner-up for the RIBA Stirling Prize for Architecture in 2003.^[134]

Proposals included the demolition of the Plymouth Pavilions entertainment arena to create a canal "boulevard" linking Millbay to the city centre delivered in 2020. Millbay is being regenerated with mixed residential, retail and office space alongside the ferry port.^[135]

Plymouth's Civic Centre was vacated by Plymouth City Council, and their operations were dispersed across the city centre—the vacant and dilapidated modernist building was proposed for demolition by the Council but was ultimately saved by a listing in 2007^[136] for its national architectural merit and was gifted to the developers Urban Splash, who intend to refurbish the structure for a mixed-use regeneration including variable let accommodation.^[137] The removal and relocation of Bretonside bus station—a site originally earmarked for the Council^[138]—was ultimately released for a mixed-use commercial leisure redevelopment including cinema and restaurants named 'Barcode' owned by British Land which also owns the adjacent Drake's Circus.^[139]

Jacka Bakery in the Barbican district is reputedly the oldest bakery in the UK,^[140] and has operated since the 1600s.

Transport

Railway

• London Paddington, Bristol Temple Meads and Cardiff Central; local services run to Gunnislake. It also manages the station.^[142]

• Sheffield, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central and Aberdeen.^[143]

Smaller stations in the suburban area west of the city centre are served by trains on the Tamar Valley Line to Gunnislake and local services on the Cornish Main Line, which crosses the Tamar on the Royal Albert Bridge. This was designed by Brunel and opened in 1859. The parallel road bridge was completed in 1961.

History

The station opened on its present site in 1877 and was previously named Plymouth North Road, when there were other main line stations in the city at Millbay and Friary; these have since closed.

Future

There have been proposals to reopen the Exeter to Plymouth railway of the LSWR which would connect Cornwall and Plymouth to Exeter using the former Southern Railway main line from Plymouth to Exeter via Okehampton, because the main line through South Devon is vulnerable to damage from rough seas at Dawlish, where some of the cliffs are also fragile. There are related proposals to reopen part of the old main line from Bere Alston on the Plymouth-Gunnislake line as far as Tavistock to serve a new housing development but, although the idea has been discussed since 2008, progress has been slow.

Roads

The A38 dual-carriageway runs from east to west across the north of the city; within the city, it is known as 'The Parkway' and represents the boundary between the older parts of the city and more recently developed suburban areas. Heading east, it connects Plymouth to the M5 motorway, about 40 miles (65 km) away near Exeter; heading west, it connects Devon with Cornwall via the Tamar Bridge.

Buses

Bus services are provided mainly by Plymouth Citybus and Stagecoach South West, but a few routes are served by smaller local operators. Long distance inter-city bus services terminate at Plymouth coach station.^[144]

There are three

Ferries

A regular international ferry service provided by

Air

The city's airport was Plymouth City Airport about 4 miles (6 km) north of the city centre.^[150] The airport was home to the local airline Air Southwest,^[151] which operated flights across the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Cycle routes

Plymouth is at the southern end of the 99-mile (159 km) long

Religion

Plymouth has about 150 churches city-wide. The

Plymouth has the first known reference to Jews in the

58.1% of the population described themselves in the 2011 census return as being at least nominally Christian and 0.8% as Muslim with all other religions represented by less than 0.5% each. The portion of people without a religion is 32.9%; above the national average of 24.7%. 7.1% did not state their religious belief.[164] Since the 2001 Census, the number of Christians and Jews has decreased (−16% and −7% respectively), while all other religions have increased and non-religious people have almost doubled in number.^[165]

Culture

New Palace Theatre

in 2008

Built in 1815,

Outdoor events and festivals are held including the annual

The city's main theatre is

Plymouth is the regional television centre of

Sport

Plymouth is home to Plymouth Argyle F.C., who, as of the 2023-24 season, play in the second tier of English football, the EFL Championship.^[187] The team's home ground is called Home Park and is located in Central Park.^[188] It links itself with the group of English non-conformists that left Plymouth for the New World in 1620: its nickname is "The Pilgrims".^[189] The city also has three Non-League football clubs; Plymouth Parkway who play at Bolitho Park, Elburton Villa who play at Haye Road and Plymstock United who play at Dean Cross. Plymouth Parkway were promoted to the Western League from the South West Peninsula League in 2018, and after two Covid-19 interrupted years to the Southern Football League in 2021, whilst Elburton Villa and Plymstock United continue to compete in the South West Peninsula League.

Other sports clubs competing in national competition include Plymouth Albion, Plymouth City Patriots, Plymouth Raiders and Plymouth Gladiators.

In basketball, the city is represented by two teams; Plymouth City Patriots, of the top-tier British Basketball League, and Plymouth Raiders of the National Basketball League.

until 2010.

Plymouth Leander is the most successful swimming club in Great Britain along with Plymouth Diving Club.

Plymouth is an important centre for watersports, especially scuba diving and sailing. The Port of Plymouth Regatta is one of the oldest regattas in the world, and has been held regularly since 1823. In September 2011, Plymouth hosted the America's Cup World Series for nine days.^[191]

Public services

Since 1973 Plymouth has been supplied water by

Plymouth City Council is responsible for waste management throughout the city and

Plymouth is served by Plymouth Hospitals

The mid-19th-century burial ground at

Landmarks and tourist attractions

After the English Civil War the Royal Citadel was erected in 1666 towards the eastern section of Plymouth Hoe, to defend the port from naval attacks, suppress Plymothian Parliamentary leanings and to train the armed forces. Currently, guided tours are available in the summer months.^[28] Further west is Smeaton's Tower, which is a standard lighthouse that was constructed in 1759. 14 miles (23 km) Furthermore, Smeaton's Tower was dismantled in 1877 and the top two-thirds were reassembled on Plymouth Hoe.^[210] It is open to the public and has views over the Plymouth Sound and the city from the lantern room.^[211] Plymouth has 20 war memorials of which nine are on The Hoe including: Plymouth Naval Memorial, to remember those killed in World Wars I and II, and the Armada Memorial, to commemorate the defeat of the Spanish Armada.^[212]

The early port settlement of Plymouth, called "Sutton", approximates to the area now referred to as the

One mile (two kilometres) upstream on the opposite side of the River Plym is the Saltram estate, which has a Jacobean and Georgian mansion.^[216]

On the northern outskirts of the city,

To the west of the city is

Plymouth is often used as a base by visitors to Dartmoor, the Tamar Valley and the beaches of south-east Cornwall.^[219] Kingsand, Cawsand and Whitsand Bay are popular.^[220]

The Roland Levinsky Building, the landmark building of the University of Plymouth, is located in the city's central quarter. Designed by leading architect Henning Larsen, the building was opened in 2008 and houses the University's Arts faculty.^[221]

Beckley Point, at 78m / 20 floors, is Plymouth's tallest building^[222][223] and was completed on 8 February 2018. It was designed by Boyes Rees Architects and built by contractors Kier.

• Images of landmarks
• 
  Smeaton's Tower
• 
  Plymouth Sound and Breakwater
• 
  National Armada memorial (Britannia)
• 
  Naval War Memorial
• 
  The Parade, Barbican
• 
  The Mayflower Steps Memorial
• 
  Saltram House remodelled by the architect Robert Adam
• 
  Beckley Point

Notable people

People from Plymouth are known as Plymothians or less formally as

The Elizabethan navigator, Sir

was a Plymouth man.

Painter Sir

, was born at Hoe Gate in 1791.

Notable athletes include swimmer

was also born in Plymouth. Kevin Owen is an international TV news anchor who was born in Freedom Fields Hospital, while his father served as a Royal Navy officer. Cambridge spy Guy Burgess was born at 2 Albemarle Villas, Stoke whilst his father was a serving Royal Navy officer.^[244]

Twin city

• Brest, France^[245]
• Gdynia, Poland^[245]
• Novorossiysk, Russia^[245]
• Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States^[245]
• San Sebastián, Spain^[245]
• Jiaxing, China^[246]

Freedom of the City

The following People, Military Units and Organisations and Groups have received the Freedom of the City of Plymouth.

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (November 2021)

Individuals

• Mark Ormrod: 22 November 2021.^[247][248]
• Thomas Robert Daley: 17 February 2022.^{[249][250][251][252][253]}
• Lewis Pugh: 27 March 2023.
• Heather Knight: 27 March 2023.

^[254]

Military Units

• 42 Commando, RM: 1955.^[255]
• The
  Merchant Navy
  : 22 March 2009.
• The Rifles: 25 September 2010.^[256]
• The Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit Derriford: 30 January 2023.^[257]

Organisations and Groups

• Veterans of the Falklands War: 25 June 2022.^[258][259]
• The Federation of Plymouth and District Ex-Services Associations: 19 June 2023.^[260]

See also

• Fortifications of Plymouth
• Grade I listed buildings in Plymouth
• Grade II* listed buildings in Plymouth

Notes

References

Further reading

• Gould, Jeremy (2010). Plymouth: Vision of a modern city. English Heritage
• Dunning, Martin (2001). Around Plymouth. Frith Book.
• Gill, Crispin (1993). Plymouth: A New History. Devon Books.
• Robinson, Chris (2004). Plymouth Then & Now. Plymouth Prints.
• Casley, Nicholas (1997). The Medieval Incorporation of Plymouth and a Survey of the Borough's Bounds. Old Plymouth Society.
• Carew, Richard (1555). The Survey of Cornwall. N.B. Carew refers to Plymouth Hoe as "the Hawe at Plymmouth"
• Abercrombie, Patrick; Watson, James; Stamp, Laurence; Robinson, Gilbert (27 April 1944). A Plan for Plymouth. Underhill. N.B. the publication carries the date 1943, although published on 27 April 27, 1944 A Plan for Plymouth – The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History
• W Best Harris – Plymouth – Plymouth Council of Social Service (undated)
• W Best Harris – Stories From Plymouth's History – Self-Published, Plymouth (undated)
• W Best Harris – The Book of Plymouth – Guild of Social Service, Plymouth (undated)
• W Best Harris – The New Book of Plymouth – Guild of Social Service, Plymouth (undated)
• W Best Harris – The Second Book of Plymouth – Guild of Social Service, Plymouth, 1957
• W Best Harris – Place Names of Plymouth, Dartmoor and the Tamar Valley – Self-Published, Plymouth, 1983
• W Best Harris – Welcome to Plymouth – Plymouth City Council (undated)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Plymouth.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Plymouth.

• Plymouth City Council website
• Plymouth City Council's open data website
• Plymouth at
  Curlie