Plymouth

Plymouth is a city in the South West of England, or alternatively the Westcountry, and is situated within the traditional county of Devon. It is located at the mouths of the rivers Plym and Tamar and at the head of one of the world's largest and most spectacular natural harbours, the Plymouth Sound. The city has a rich maritime past and was once one of the two most important Royal Navy bases in Britain, a factor that made the city a prime target of the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. After the destruction of the dockyards and city centre in the blitz of 1941, Plymouth was rebuilt under the guidance of architect Patrick Abercrombie and is now one of the few remaining naval dockyards in Britain and the largest naval base in Western Europe. Important locations in the city include The Royal Citadel, Devonport Dockyard and The Barbican from where the Pilgrims left for the New World in 1620.

People born in Plymouth are known as Plymothians or less formally as Janners. In the Royal Navy, "Guz" is a nickname for Devonport.

History

The earliest known settlement in Plymouth dates back to 1000BC with a small iron age trading port located at Mount Batten. It is thought that tin was brought here from Dartmoor via the Plym and traded with the ancient Phoenicians. When part of the Roman Empire this same port continued to trade tin along with cattle and hides. The small port was later overshadowed by the rise of the fishing village of Sutton.

Sutton became a market town in 1254 and later was the first town incorporated by the English Parliament on 12 November, 1439. At the same time the name of the town was changed from Sutton to Plymouth.

In 1403, the town was briefly occupied and burnt by the French, it was also from Plymouth that the Pilgrims sailed to the New World in 1620 aboard the Mayflower before landing at and founding the "Plymouth Colony". Plymouth was where the defeated Napolean Bonaparte was brought aboard the HMS Bellerophon before his exile to St Helena in 1815 and the surviving crew of the RMS Titanic disaster disembarked on their return to England in 1912.

On 14 December 1810, Plymouth was struck by the strongest tornado yet reported in the UK (as of August 2005), with a T8 rating on the TORRO scale, and a wind speed of 213 to 240 mph. ^{[citation needed]}

Most visitors to Plymouth are drawn to the spectacular Plymouth Hoe, a stretch of greensward overlooking Plymouth Sound; it is believed that this is the place where Sir Francis Drake completed his game of bowls before setting sail to defeat the Spanish Armada.

Plymouth during the Civil War

Plymouth sided with the Parliamentarians against Charles I in the English Civil War. The town held out for almost four years until the defeat of the Royalists. There are a number of Forts and Keeps from that era, the remains of which can still be seen. After the restoration of the monarchy, construction of The Royal Citadel began in 1665. It is interesting to note that cannons were placed on the walls both facing out to sea and towards the town. A reminder to the people of Plymouth what consequences a repeated stance against the monarchy could have in future.

Plymouth during the Second World War

Plymouth was one of Britain's principal naval dockyards, a naval tradition that continues to this day. The city was extensively blitzed during the Second World War, to the extent that approximately twice the amount of housing stock that existed prior to the war was destroyed during it (as a consequence of rebuilt houses being successively hit). Although the dockyards were the principal targets, civilian casualties were inevitably very high.

The first bomb fell on the city on Saturday 6 July, 1940 at Swilly, killing 3 people. The last attack came on 30 April, 1944. Altogether 1,172 people were killed and 3,269 people were injured - these figures do not include the many service casualties. At one point the population fell from 220,000, at the start of the conflict, to 127,000.

The two main shopping centres and nearly every civic building were destroyed, along with 20 schools and 40 churches. 3,754 houses were destroyed with a further 18,398 seriously damaged. In the midst of that devastation a famous wooden sign was anonymously posted over the door of St Andrew's Church saying simply "Resurgam" (a Latin word meaning "I shall rise again"), indicating the wartime spirit. To this day the entrance of the church has been referred to as Resurgam door and a granite plaque with the word engraved is now permanently placed there.

Plymouth was also one of the principal staging posts for the Normandy landings in June 1944.

Arts

Many highly acclaimed events and festivals are held in Plymouth including the British Fireworks Championships, World Championship Class 1 Powerboat Racing and Music of the Night, a massive outdoor production held every two years in The Royal Citadel involving the efforts of the 29th Commando Regiment, Royal Artillery, The Royal Artillery Band, the band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines and hundreds of local amateur performers.

Theatres

The premier theatre not only for Plymouth but of the entire Westcountry is the Theatre Royal and its Drum Theatre where many current and widely acclaimed productions are shown. The Theatre Royal recently opened its Production and Education Centre on the waterfront at Cattedown, otherwise known as TR2. This architecturally praised building ensures that drama and acting continue to succeed in the city. On The Barbican is the Barbican Theatre providing the opportunity for the people of Plymouth to access and participate in high quality drama and acting, it also hosts a monthly comedy night. Many amateur dramatic societies and schools of dance function in Plymouth and regularly perform at the Athenaeum Theatre, Devonport Playhouse and Globe Theatre.

The Plymouth Pavilions opened in 1991, and stages regular music concerts to suit all tastes from rock and pop to ballet, and other live events.

The Plymouth Music Accord is an organisation of classical music consisting of many amateur and professional orchestras and choirs such as the South West Sinfonietta, Plymouth Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic Choir, Opera South West, the City of Plymouth Concert Band, the University of Plymouth Choir and Orchestra and Plymouth Jazz Club.

Museums, Art Galleries and Historic Buildings

The Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery is home to vast collections of fine and decorative arts, natural history and human history. The museum's natural history collection consists of over 150,000 specimens of insects, birds, mammals, skeletons, plants, fossils and rocks along with an historic natural history library and archive. Many prehistoric artefacts from Dartmoor, important Bronze Age and Iron Age material from Mount Batten and medieval and post-medieval finds from Plymouth are found in the human history collection alongside artefacts from ancient Egypt and other ancient cultures of Europe and the Middle East. The Art Gallery boasts ever-changing art displays and exhibitions showcasing local and international art ranging from the 16th to the 20th centuries. The collections include 750 easel paintings, over 3000 watercolours and drawings, at least 5000 prints and a sizeable collection of sculptures. Work by local artists include that of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Robert Lenkiewicz along with work by artists of the 19th century Newlyn School, the influential 20th century St. Ives group of painters and works by the Camden Town Group.

The Plymouth Arts Centre is located in the historic Barbican and offers displays of work by a wide range of local, British and international artists such as Beryl Cook, Richard Deacon, Andy Goldsworthy and Sir Terry Frost. As well as promoting art, many independent art house and foreign films are also shown here. In a spectacularly converted church on North Hill is the Sherwell Centre that plays host to regular exhibitions, concerts, recitals, lectures and other public events. Many more small and privately owned galleries can be found on The Barbican.

Other museums in Plymouth include the Plymouth Dome, the Plymouth & West Devon Record Office, Smeatons Tower, the Elizabethan House and Merchants House in addition to thousands of historic documents at various other locations.

Plymouth is also home to the [1] National Marine Aquarium. It is Britain's foremost aquarium.

The synagogue, in Catherine Street, was built in 1762. It is the oldest Ashkenazi synagogue still standing in the English-speaking world.

Famous painters associated with Plymouth include Beryl Cook, Robert Lenkiewicz, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin Robert Haydon, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, James Northcote and Samuel Prout.

Writers who are associated with Plymouth include the noted Dartmoor antiquarian William Crossing, and Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould.

Nightlife

The centre of Plymouth's nightlife for over a century has been the infamous Union Street. Once lined with numerous music halls and cinemas, the street is now home to a wide number of bars, clubs and casinos such as Bongogos, Kuleroos Sports Bar, Walkabout Bar and The Standley Grand Casino. The Millennium Complex was the major club on this thoroughfare incorporating three clubs in one, but was apparently shut down due to unlawful doings. Union Street still maintains a reputation for unruly drunken behaviour but also as a place for a guaranteed wild night out. Although most clubs play commercial dance and R&B, there are some such as C103s which plays a variety of rock, spanning from classic to new age. Another location of clubs and bars is at the Barbican Leisure Park and the gay friendly Zero's on Lockyer Street.

There are a number of bars with live music such as the Barbican Jazz Cafe, The Cider Press, The Cooperage and The Three Crowns on The Barbican and Yates's Wine Lodge on Royal Parade. The Plymouth Gin Distillery on the Barbican, along with Jack Chams on Ebrington Street serve award winning cocktails. Major cinemas include the ABC Cinema on Derry's Cross and the Vue multiscreen complex at the Barbican Leisure Park.

Mutley Plain, a road in the area of Mutley, is a pleasant residential shopping area and also now has many bars like Cafe Sol and The Underground; due to the increase of student population in the city.

Government

In 1914 the County Borough of Plymouth merged with the Municipal Borough of Devonport and the Urban District of East Stonehouse to form an enlarged County Borough. Collectively they were referred to as "The Three Towns". In 1928 the County Borough of Plymouth was granted city status. The city's boundaries were extended in the mid-1930s and further expanded in 1967 to include the town of Plympton and the parish of Plymstock. On 1 April 1974 responsibility for education, social services, highways and libraries was transferred to Devon County Council. On 1 April 1998 these responsibilities were transfered back when the City Council became a unitary authority.

The City of Plymouth is divided into 20 electoral wards, 17 of which elect three local Councillors and the other three electing two local Councillors to the 57 seats of the City Council. Councillors are also known as Members of the Council and usually stand for election as members of national political parties. The local elections are held every four years with elections for one third of Council seats being held each year, the total electorate for Plymouth is 184,956 as of December 2003. The local election of June 2004 resulted in a current political composition of 35 Labour, 19 Conservative, two Liberal Democrat and one Independent Councillors.

The Council is headed by the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, both positions being held by the Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor respectively. There is also a Leader of the Council (the Chairman of the Cabinet) and a leader of each political group. The current Lord Mayor is Patrick Nicholson who is the 538th holder of the office since its establishment in 1439. It was in 1935 that the grant of dignity of Lord Mayor was announced; before that the office was Mayor. The Lord Mayor of Plymouth's official residence is 3 Elliot Terrace, located on the Hoe. Once the private residence of Waldorf and Nancy Astor, it was presented by Lady Astor to the City of Plymouth as a residence for future Lord Mayors and is used today for civic hospitality by visiting dignatories and circuit judges.

In Westminster, Plymouth is represented by the three constituencies of Plymouth Devonport, Plymouth Sutton and Southwest Devon. As of the 2005 General Election the two former constituencies are held by Labour MPs Alison Seabeck and Linda Gilroy respectively with the latter held by Conservative MP Gary Streeter.

Transport

The city is one of the primary gateways to Cornwall providing access by way of the Torpoint Ferry across the Hamoaze, and the Tamar Bridge linking the St Budeaux area of Plymouth on the Devon bank of the Tamar to Saltash on the Cornish bank. The major rail link to Cornwall, the Royal Albert Bridge runs side-by-side with the road bridge. A small foot-passenger ferry also runs between Stonehouse and the Cornish village of Cremyll; adjacent to the Mount Edgcumbe estate.

A regular ferry service provided by Brittany Ferries operates from Millbay taking cars and foot passengers directly to Roscoff, Brittany and Santander, Spain. The berths in Millbay have recently been expanded to accommodate the new fleet of luxury ferries and future redevelopment is planned to transform the harbour into a major port that will also accommodate incoming cruise liners. Currently Millbay is only the point where passengers are transported in tenders to and from cruise liners that occasionally stop off in the Plymouth Sound. These actions will see Plymouth revert from a predominantly naval port, where British and other foreign warships and submarines regularly dock, and return to a major destination of international cruise liners, as was common before the Second World War.

Air travel to Plymouth is directly to Plymouth City Airport, or 'Roborough', a small airport located four miles north of the city centre, just off the A386 road to Tavistock. Air Southwest and Air Wales both operate short flights to destinations within Great Britain, Ireland and the Channel Islands. The expansion of this airport to provide flights to continental Europe is currently a controversial issue in the city. Due to the airport's central location expansion is limited and public opinion towards building a new airport to the east of the city remain divided between the economic benefits to the local economy and the environmental concerns over building in the countryside.

The rail link in Plymouth offers direct travel by First Great Western and Virgin Trains to Penzance in Cornwall and Paddington in London and links to the North of England by Virgin Trains.

Economy

The economy of Plymouth has traditionally been linked to its coastal location focusing around fishing and the military, in particular Devonport Dockyard. The recent decline of these industries has seen a greater diversification towards a service based economy based on healthcare, food and drink and call centres with electronics, advanced engineering and boat building still maintaining a prime role. The decline of heavy industries has had a negative effect on the city's employment figures. In the past eight years employment has risen 11%, however, employment and wages still remain significantly below the national average.

In terms of retail Plymouth is ranked second in the South West and 29th nationally. As the chief regional city of Devon and Cornwall, Plymouth has a catchment area of over 720,000 people with an annual high street expenditure of over £600 million being spent in the city. An annual influx of 11.8 million tourists is another major contributor to the local economy. The city is also one of 22 British cities to trial the new Business Improvement District initiative.

Education

The University of Plymouth is the largest university in the Southwest of England with over 30,000 students, almost 3,000 staff and an annual income of around £110 million.

Colleges

The College of St Mark and St John (often referred to as "Marjons"), is primarily a teacher training college, although it also offers degree courses in a wide range of subjects. Marjon is affiliated to the University of Exeter.

Plymouth has one of the largest Further Education Colleges in the country providing courses from the most basic to Foundation Degrees, it enrols more than 20,000 students a year. Plymouth College of Further Education is a highly successful college with many national awards for teaching and is to be found on the old site of Devonport Station which was Plymouth's largest and most important station until the cuts of Beeching.

The Plymouth College of Art and Design (referred to as PCAD) is located at Drake Circus. The College offers a wide selection of innovative and traditional courses relating to the world of art and design.

Schools

Plymouth College, one of England's public schools, is situated in Ford Park, to the north of the city centre.

The other consistantly high performing schools in Plymouth are Devonport High School for Boys and Devonport High School for Girls, two selective Grammar Schools with a reputation for academic excellence, Plymouth High School for Girls located near the city centre and Plymstock School, a comprehensive school and Specialist Sports College.

Green Space

Plymouth has a number of public parks, the most significant of which is the massive Central Park. Other significant green spaces include Victoria Park, Freedom Fields, Alexandra Park, Keyham, Beaumont Park, St Judes, Greenbank Park, Devonport Park and Westwell Gardens.

Sport

The city is home to Plymouth Argyle Football Club, which plays in the English Football League's Championship division. The club is based at the Home Park stadium in Central Park.

The Plymouth Albion Rugby Football Club plays in the National League Division One. The Plymouth Rugby League Football Club play in the Rugby League Conference South West Division.

The Plymouth Raiders basketball team plays in the British Basketball League.

The Plymouth Admirals; Plymouth's American Football team play in BSL Division Two South Western Conference.

Media

The city's main commercial radio station is Plymouth Sound FM.

Since June 2005, another commercial station, Armada FM, has started broadcasting to the city.

The regional stations include BBC Radio Devon, BBC Radio Cornwall and Pirate FM.

The main regional newspaper is the Western Morning News, whose headquarters and printworks were designed by architect Nicholas Grimshaw.The local news printed by the same publisher is The Evening Herald. (Formerly The Western Evening Herald)

Plymouth 2020

Plymouth is currently undertaking a massive project of urban redevelopment, the largest since the city was rebuilt after the Second World War. The 'Vision for Plymouth' launched by the internationally renowned architect David MacKay, and fully backed by Plymouth City Council is set to see areas of the city centre demolished, redesigned and rebuilt by the year 2020. Two of Plymouth's greatest eyesores; the old Drake Circus shopping centre and Charles Cross car park, have already been demolished and are currently being replaced by the new £200 million Drake Circus shopping centre, which is due to open on 5 October 2006.

Former public leisure centre, the Ballard Centre is currently being replaced with high quality urban living and office space along with a project involving the future demolition of the Bretonside bus station. A new £20 million nine-storey Jury's Inn hotel is being developed near the landmark ruined church and war memorial, Charles Church, along with a new Arts Centre adjacent to the university. Other future plans include the demolition of the Plymouth Pavilions entertainment arena to create a boulevard linking Millbay to the city centre. Millbay itself, currently by day a wasteland and by night a red light district, is also to be regenerated with mixed residential, retail and office space alongside extensive new harbour facilities.

Since development of the new shopping centre began, shop rents in the city centre have been significantly increased, inadvertently pushing smaller retail outlets out of the marketplace. Examples include Some Bizarre, which also lost customers as a result of the demolition of a pedestrian subway and more recently Kathie's Comics, an esoteric comic and game enthusiast store.

Twinning

The twin cities of Plymouth are:

• Brest, Brittany, France (twinned 1963)
• Gdynia, Poland (twinned 1976)
• Novorossiysk, Russia (twinned 1990)
• San Sebastian, Spain (twinned 1990)
• Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States (twinned 2001)

Plymouth also maintains a link with:

• Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana