Plymouth ( ) is a
port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...
city
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
and
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...
in
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
,
South West England
South West England, or the South West of England, is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England in the United Kingdom. Additionally, it is one of four regions that altogether make up Southern England. South West England con ...
. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers
Plym and
Tamar, about southwest of
Exeter
Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...
and southwest of London. It is the most populous city in Devon.
Plymouth's history extends back to the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
, evolving from a trading post at
Mount Batten
Mount Batten is a 24-metre (80-ft) tall outcrop of rock on a 600-metre (2000-ft) peninsula in Plymouth Sound, Devon, England, named after Sir William Batten (c.1600-1667), MP and Surveyor of the Navy; it was previously known as How Stert.
Af ...
into the thriving
market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...
of Sutton, which was formally re-named as Plymouth in 1439 when it was made a
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
...
. The settlement has played a significant role in English history, notably in 1588 when an English fleet based here defeated the
Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada (often known as Invincible Armada, or the Enterprise of England, ) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by Alonso de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aristocrat without previous naval ...
, and in 1620 as the departure point for the
Pilgrim Fathers
The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English settlers who travelled to North America on the ship ''Mayflower'' and established the Plymouth Colony at what now is Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. John Smith had named ...
to the
New World
The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
. During the
English Civil War
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
, the town was held by the
Parliamentarians and was besieged between 1642 and 1646. In 1690 a
dockyard
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involve ...
was established on the River Tamar for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
and Plymouth grew as a commercial shipping port throughout the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...
.
After absorbing nearby settlements in 1914, the borough was awarded city status in 1928. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Plymouth suffered extensive damage in the
Plymouth Blitz
The Plymouth Blitz was a series of bombing raids carried out by the Nazi German ''Luftwaffe'' on the English city of Plymouth in the Second World War. The bombings launched on numerous British cities were known as the Blitz.
The royal d ...
, 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
Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
, with a population in of .
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
His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth) and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Roya ...
, 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
The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...
, reflecting its educational and cultural significance. Today, the city is governed locally by
Plymouth City Council
Plymouth City Council is the local authority for the city of Plymouth, in the ceremonial county of Devon, England. Plymouth has had a council since 1439, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1998 the council has been a unitary aut ...
and is represented nationally by three
Members of Parliament.
History
Early history
Upper Palaeolithic
The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories ...
deposits, including bones of ''
Homo sapiens
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...
'' have been found in local caves, and artefacts dating from the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
to the Middle
Iron Age
The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
have been found at
Mount Batten
Mount Batten is a 24-metre (80-ft) tall outcrop of rock on a 600-metre (2000-ft) peninsula in Plymouth Sound, Devon, England, named after Sir William Batten (c.1600-1667), MP and Surveyor of the Navy; it was previously known as How Stert.
Af ...
, showing that it was one of few principal trading ports of pre-Roman
Britannia
The image of Britannia () is the national personification of United Kingdom, Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used by the Romans in classical antiquity, the Latin was the name variously appli ...
dominating continental trade with
Armorica
In ancient times, Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; ; ) was a region of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, and much of historical Normandy.
Name
The name ''Armorica'' is a Latinized form of the Gauli ...
. An unidentified settlement named ''TAMARI OSTIA'' (mouth/estuaries of the Tamar) is listed in Ptolemy's
''Geographia'' and is presumed to be located in the area of the modern city. An ancient
promontory fort
A promontory fort is a fortification, defensive structure located above a steep cliff, often only connected to the mainland by a small neck of land, thus using the topography to reduce the Rampart (fortification), ramparts needed.
The oldest kno ...
was located at
Rame Head at the mouth of
Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England.
Description
Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of abo ...
with ancient
hillforts located at
Lyneham Warren to the east,
Boringdon Camp and
Maristow Camp to the north.
The settlement of
Plympton
Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient Stannary, stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down riv ...
, further up the
River Plym
The River Plym is a river in Devon, England. It runs from Dartmoor in the centre of the county southwest to meet the River Meavy, then south towards Plymouth Sound. The river is popular with canoeists, and the Plym Valley Railway runs alongside ...
than the current Plymouth, was also an early trading port. (See
Plympton
Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient Stannary, stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down riv ...
for the derivation of the name ''Plym''.) As the river silted up in the early 11th century, mariners and merchants were forced to settle downriver, at the current day
Barbican
A barbican (from ) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes.
Europe
Medieval Europeans typically b ...
near the river mouth.
At the time this village was called Sutton, meaning ''south town'' in
Old English
Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
.
The name ''Plym Mouth'', meaning "mouth of the River Plym" was first mentioned in a
Pipe Roll
The Pipe rolls, sometimes called the Great rollsBrown ''Governance'' pp. 54–56 or the Great Rolls of the Pipe, are a collection of financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, or HM Treasury, Treasury, and its successors, as well a ...
of 1211.
Plympton Priory
Plympton Priory was a priory in Devon, England. Its history is recorded in the Annales Plymptonienses.
History
The site of an Anglo-Saxon minster, Plympton Priory was re-founded as an Augustinian house by Bishop William Warelwast in 1121. The ...
owned land at Sutton and secured a charter from
Henry III in 1254 granting the priory the right to hold a weekly market and annual fair at Sutton, making it a
market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...
.
Early defence and Renaissance
During the
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a conflict between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France and a civil war in France during the Late Middle Ages. It emerged from feudal disputes over the Duchy ...
a French attack in 1340 burned a manor house and took some prisoners, but failed to get into the town. In 1403 the town was burned by
Breton raiders. On 12 November 1439 the market town of Sutton was incorporated as a
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
...
and formally renamed Plymouth, with a subsequent charter the following year formalising its boundaries. It was the first time a borough charter had been issued by
parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
rather than directly from the monarch.
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.

The castle served to protect
Sutton Pool, which is where the fleet was based in Plymouth prior to the establishment of
Plymouth Dockyard
His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth) and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Roya ...
. In 1512, an Act of Parliament was passed to further fortify Plymouth. The work included defensive walls at the entrance to Sutton Pool (across which a chain was extended in times of danger). Defences on
St Nicholas Island also date from this time, and a string of six artillery
blockhouse
A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...
s were built, including one on Fishers Nose at the south-eastern corner of the Hoe. This location was further strengthened by the building of a fort (later known as Drake's Fort) in 1596; it was the site of the
Citadel
A citadel is the most fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of ''city'', meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core.
...
, established in the 1660s (see below).

During the 16th century, locally produced wool was the major export commodity.
Plymouth was the home port for successful maritime traders, among them
Sir John Hawkins, who led England's first foray into the
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...
, as well as Sir
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (bein ...
, Mayor of Plymouth in 1581–2. Crews for the first English failed settlement attempt at
Roanoke Colony
The Roanoke Colony ( ) refers to two attempts by Sir Walter Raleigh to found the first permanent English settlement in North America. The first colony was established at Roanoke Island in 1585 as a military outpost, and was evacuated in 1586. ...
in North America departed in 1587 under Sir
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebell ...
's and Drake's leadership; returning bearing maize, tobacco and
potatoes
The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...
.
In 1588, according to legend, Drake insisted on completing his game of bowls on the
Hoe before engaging the
Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada (often known as Invincible Armada, or the Enterprise of England, ) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by Alonso de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aristocrat without previous naval ...
.
In 1620 the
Pilgrims set sail for the
New World
The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
from Plymouth, establishing
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony (sometimes spelled Plimouth) was the first permanent English colony in New England from 1620 and the third permanent English colony in America, after Newfoundland and the Jamestown Colony. It was settled by the passengers on t ...
– the second English colony in what is now the United States. In 1625, the town Mayor estimated that African slavers captured that summer about 1,000 villagers from the area, to be sold in Africa.
During the
English Civil War
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
Plymouth sided with the
Parliamentarians and was
besieged for almost four years by the
Royalists.
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.
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
Drake's Island is a island lying in Plymouth Sound, the stretch of water south of the city of Plymouth, Devon. The rocks which make up the island are volcanic tuff and lava, together with marine limestone of the Devonian period. For more th ...
.
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
The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...
.
Mount Batten
Mount Batten is a 24-metre (80-ft) tall outcrop of rock on a 600-metre (2000-ft) peninsula in Plymouth Sound, Devon, England, named after Sir William Batten (c.1600-1667), MP and Surveyor of the Navy; it was previously known as How Stert.
Af ...
tower also dates from around this time.
Plymouth Dock, naval power and Foulston
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
The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...
during the early 18th century, although it was relatively small.
In the nearby parish of
Stoke Damerel the first dockyard,
HMNB Devonport
His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth) and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Roya ...
, opened in 1690 on the eastern bank of the
River Tamar
The Tamar (; ) is a river in south west England that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west). A large part of the valley of the Tamar is protected as the Tamar Valley National Landscape (an Area of Outsta ...
. Further docks were built here in 1727, 1762 and 1793.
The settlement that developed here was called "Dock" or "Plymouth Dock" at the time, and a new town, separate from Plymouth, grew up. In 1712 there were 318 men employed and by 1733 the population had grown to 3,000 people.
Before the latter half of the 18th century, grain, timber and then coal were Plymouth's main imports. During this time the real source of wealth was from the neighbouring town of Plymouth Dock (renamed in 1824 to Devonport) and the major employer in the entire region was the dockyard.
The ''
Three Towns
Three Towns is a term used to refer to several groups of towns.
United Kingdom
There are several groups of towns in the United Kingdom referred to as the Three Towns, many of which form contiguous settlements, or are in close proximity to each ...
'' conurbation of Plymouth,
Stonehouse and
Devonport enjoyed some prosperity during the late 18th and early 19th century and were enriched by a series of
neo-classical urban developments designed by London architect
John Foulston.
Foulston was important for both Devonport and Plymouth and was responsible for several grand public buildings, many now destroyed, including the Athenaeum, the
Theatre Royal and Royal Hotel, and much of
Union Street.
Local chemist
William Cookworthy established his short-lived
Plymouth Porcelain venture in 1768 to exploit the deposits of
china clay
Kaolinite ( ; also called kaolin) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedron, tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen ...
that he had discovered in Cornwall. He was acquainted with engineer
John Smeaton
John Smeaton (8 June 1724 – 28 October 1792) was an English civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent scholar, who introduced various ...
, the builder of the third
Eddystone Lighthouse
The Eddystone Lighthouse is a lighthouse on the Eddystone Rocks, south of Rame Head in Cornwall, England. The rocks are submerged below the surface of the sea and are composed of Precambrian gneiss. View at 1:50000 scale
The current structu ...
.
The Breakwater in Plymouth Sound was designed by
John Rennie to protect the fleet moving in and out of Devonport; work started in 1812. Numerous technical difficulties and repeated storm damage meant that it was not completed until 1841, twenty years after Rennie's death. In the 1860s, a ring of
Palmerston forts
The Palmerston Forts are a group of forts and associated structures around the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The forts were built during the Victorian period on the recommendations of the 1860 Royal Commission on the Defence of the ...
was constructed around the outskirts of Devonport, to protect the dockyard from attack from any direction.

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
Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...
,
sodium nitrate
Sodium nitrate is the chemical compound with the chemical formula, formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt (chemistry), salt is also known as Chile saltpeter (large deposits of which were historically mined in Chile) to distinguish it from ordi ...
and
phosphate
Phosphates are the naturally occurring form of the element phosphorus.
In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthop ...
. 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.
''Plan for Plymouth'' 1943
During the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Plymouth was the port of entry for many troops from around the
Empire
An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
. It was developed as a facility for the manufacture of
munitions
Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of ...
.
Although major units of the Royal Navy moved to the safety of
Scapa Flow
Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray,S. C. George, ''Jutland to Junkyard'', 1973. South Ronaldsay and Hoy. Its sheltered waters have played an impor ...
, Devonport was an important base for escort vessels and repairs. Flying boats operated from Mount Batten.

During the Second World War,
Devonport was the headquarters of
Western Approaches Command until 1941, and
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...
flying boats were operated by the
Royal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal Air force, aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the Governor-Gener ...
. It was an important embarkation point for US troops for
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
. The city was heavily bombed by the
Luftwaffe
The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
, in a series of 59 raids known as the
Plymouth Blitz
The Plymouth Blitz was a series of bombing raids carried out by the Nazi German ''Luftwaffe'' on the English city of Plymouth in the Second World War. The bombings launched on numerous British cities were known as the Blitz.
The royal d ...
.
Although the
dockyards were the principal targets, much of the city centre and over 3,700 houses were completely destroyed and more than 1,000 civilians lost their lives. This was largely due to Plymouth's status as a major port.
Charles Church was hit by
incendiary bombs and partially destroyed in 1941 during the Blitz, but has not been demolished. It has been designated as an official permanent monument to the bombing of Plymouth during World War II.
The redevelopment of the city was planned by
Sir Patrick Abercrombie in his 1943 ''Plan for Plymouth'' whilst simultaneously working on the reconstruction plan for London.
This initially included plans to expand the city into
south east Cornwall, but these were abandoned after opposition from
Cornwall County Council. Between 1951 and 1957 over 1000 homes were completed every year, mostly using innovative prefabricated systems of just three main types.
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.
Most of the city centre shops had been destroyed and those that remained were cleared to enable a zoned reconstruction according to his plan.
In 1962 the
modernist
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
high rise of the
Civic Centre was constructed, an architecturally significant example of mid-twentieth century civic slab-and-tower set piece. The
Plymouth City Council
Plymouth City Council is the local authority for the city of Plymouth, in the ceremonial county of Devon, England. Plymouth has had a council since 1439, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1998 the council has been a unitary aut ...
allowed it to fall into disrepair but it was
grade II listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...
in 2007 by
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
to prevent its demolition.
Post-war, Devonport Dockyard was kept busy refitting aircraft carriers such as the and, later,
nuclear submarines
A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear weapons, nuclear-armed.
Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically Marine diesel engine, diesel-elect ...
. New light industrial factories were constructed in the newly
zoned industrial sector, attracting rapid growth of the urban population. The army had substantially left the city by 1971, after barracks were pulled down in the 1960s,
but the city remains home to
29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery and also
42 Commando of the
Royal Marines
The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...
.
Governance
As a
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...
there is only one tier of local government covering Plymouth.
Plymouth City Council
Plymouth City Council is the local authority for the city of Plymouth, in the ceremonial county of Devon, England. Plymouth has had a council since 1439, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1998 the council has been a unitary aut ...
meets at the
Council House
A council house, corporation house or council flat is a form of British Public housing in the United Kingdom, public housing built by Local government in the United Kingdom, local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing ...
on Armada Way in the city centre. There are no
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
es in the city, which is an
unparished area
In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish (the lowest level of local government, not to be confused with an ecclesiastical parish). Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparis ...
. The city forms part of the
ceremonial county
Ceremonial counties, formally known as ''counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies'', are areas of England to which lord-lieutenant, lord-lieutenants are appointed. A lord-lieutenant is the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, monarch's repres ...
of Devon for the purposes of
lieutenancy, but has been administratively independent from
Devon County Council
Devon County Council is the county council administering the English county of Devon. The council is based at Devon County Hall in the city of Exeter.
The area administered by the county council is termed the non-metropolitan county, which is ...
since it became a unitary authority in 1998.
Administrative history
The first record of the existence of a settlement at Plymouth was in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
in 1086 as ''Sudtone'' (Sutton), Saxon for south farm, located at the present-day
Barbican
A barbican (from ) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes.
Europe
Medieval Europeans typically b ...
.
From Saxon times, it was in the
hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101.
In mathematics
100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...
of
Roborough.
Sutton became a market town in 1254 and a borough in 1439, when it was formally renamed Plymouth.
Plymouth was reformed to become a
municipal borough
A municipal borough was a type of local government
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state.
Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...
in 1836, governed by a corporate body officially called the "mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Plymouth", but generally known as the corporation or town council. When elected county councils were established in 1889, both Plymouth and neighbouring Devonport were considered large enough to provide their own county-level services and so they were made
county boroughs, independent from
Devon County Council
Devon County Council is the county council administering the English county of Devon. The council is based at Devon County Hall in the city of Exeter.
The area administered by the county council is termed the non-metropolitan county, which is ...
. In 1914 the county boroughs of Plymouth and Devonport and the adjoining
urban district of
East Stonehouse were merged to form a single county borough of Plymouth.
Collectively they were referred to as "
The Three Towns".
Plymouth was granted
city status
City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a monarch, national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose.
Historically, ci ...
on 18 October 1928. Between 1439 and 1935, Plymouth had a mayor. 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
Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient Stannary, stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down riv ...
and the
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
of
Plymstock.
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
Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...
, on the other side of the county. This led to Plymouth lobbying for the creation of a Tamarside county, to include Plymouth,
Torpoint
Torpoint () is a town and civil parish on the Rame Peninsula in southeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated opposite the city of Plymouth across the Hamoaze which is the tidal estuary of the River Tamar.
Torpoint had a populatio ...
,
Saltash
Saltash () is a town and civil parish in south Cornwall, England. It had a population of 16,184 in 2011 census. Saltash faces the city of Plymouth over the River Tamar and is popularly known as "the Gateway to Cornwall". Saltash’s landmarks ...
, and the rural
hinterland
Hinterland is a German word meaning the 'land behind' a city, a port, or similar. Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated wi ...
. 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
Devon County Council is the county council administering the English county of Devon. The council is based at Devon County Hall in the city of Exeter.
The area administered by the county council is termed the non-metropolitan county, which is ...
. All powers returned when the city became a
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...
on 1 April 1998 under recommendations of the
Banham Commission.
Constituencies
In the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...
, Plymouth is represented by the three
constituencies
An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...
of
Plymouth Moor View,
Plymouth Sutton and Devonport and
South West Devon. Prior to
Brexit
Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU).
Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...
in 2020 it was represented within the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
as
South West England
South West England, or the South West of England, is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England in the United Kingdom. Additionally, it is one of four regions that altogether make up Southern England. South West England con ...
.
In 1919,
Nancy Astor was elected the first-ever female member of parliament to take office in the British Houses of Parliament for the constituency of
Plymouth Sutton. She was elected to the seat vacated by her husband
Waldorf Astor
Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor, Deputy Lieutenant, DL (19 May 1879 – 30 September 1952) was an American-born English politician and newspaper proprietor. He was a member of the Astor family. He was active in minor political roles. He was d ...
on his elevation to the peerage. Lady Astor was a vibrantly active campaigner for her resident constituents.
In 1945, Plymouth-born
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British politician who was Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. Foot beg ...
was elected Labour MP for the constituency of
Plymouth Devonport which had been heavily damaged in the
Plymouth Blitz
The Plymouth Blitz was a series of bombing raids carried out by the Nazi German ''Luftwaffe'' on the English city of Plymouth in the Second World War. The bombings launched on numerous British cities were known as the Blitz.
The royal d ...
. He represented the seat until 1955. After serving as Secretary of State for Education and being responsible for the 1974
Health and Safety at Work Act, he went on to become the leader of the
Labour Party (1980–1983).
City Council
The City of Plymouth is divided into 20
wards, 17 of which elect three councillors and the other three electing two councillors, making up a total council of 57.
Elections are held three years out of every four, with a third of the council being elected each time for a four year term.
The total
electorate
Electorate may refer to:
* The people who are eligible to vote in an election, especially their number e.g. the term ''size of (the) electorate''
* The dominion of a prince-elector in the Holy Roman Empire until 1806
* An electoral district
...
for Plymouth's Parliamentary constituencies was 190,006 in April 2019. Since May 2023 Plymouth has had a Labour majority Council. Plymouth City Council is formally
twinned with:
Brest, France (1963),
Gdynia
Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With an estimated population of 257,000, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk ...
, Poland (1976),
Novorossiysk
Novorossiysk (, ; ) is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is one of the largest ports on the Black Sea. It is one of the few cities designated by the Soviet Union as a Hero City. The population was
History
In antiquity, the shores of the ...
, Russia (1990)
San Sebastián
San Sebastián, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián (, ), is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from the France–Spain border ...
, Spain (1990) and
Plymouth
Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...
, United States (2001).
Plymouth was granted the dignity of
Lord Mayor
Lord mayor is a title of a mayor of what is usually a major city in a Commonwealth realm, with special recognition bestowed by the sovereign. However, the title or an equivalent is present in other countries, including forms such as "high mayor". A ...
by King
George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936.
George w ...
in 1935. The position is elected each year by a group of six councillors.
It is traditional that the position of the Lord Mayor alternates between the Conservative Party and the Labour Party annually and that the Lord Mayor chooses the Deputy Lord Mayor.

The Lord Mayor's official residence is 3 Elliot Terrace, located on
the Hoe.
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.
The Civic Centre municipal office building in Armada Way became a
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
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.
Geography

Plymouth lies between the
River Plym
The River Plym is a river in Devon, England. It runs from Dartmoor in the centre of the county southwest to meet the River Meavy, then south towards Plymouth Sound. The river is popular with canoeists, and the Plym Valley Railway runs alongside ...
to the east and the
River Tamar
The Tamar (; ) is a river in south west England that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west). A large part of the valley of the Tamar is protected as the Tamar Valley National Landscape (an Area of Outsta ...
to the west; both rivers flow into the natural harbour of
Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England.
Description
Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of abo ...
.
Since 1967, the
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...
of Plymouth has included the, once independent, towns of
Plympton
Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient Stannary, stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down riv ...
and
Plymstock which lie along the east of the River Plym.
The River Tamar forms the county boundary between
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
and
Cornwall
Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
and its estuary forms the
Hamoaze on which is sited
Devonport Dockyard.
The River Plym, which flows off
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...
to the north-east, forms a smaller estuary to the east of the city called
Cattewater
The city of Plymouth, Devon, England is bounded by Dartmoor to the north, the Hamoaze to the west, the open expanse of water called Plymouth Sound to the south and the river Plym to the east.
The Cattewater is that stretch of water where the mout ...
.
Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England.
Description
Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of abo ...
is protected from the sea by the
Plymouth Breakwater, in use since 1814. In the Sound is
Drake's Island
Drake's Island is a island lying in Plymouth Sound, the stretch of water south of the city of Plymouth, Devon. The rocks which make up the island are volcanic tuff and lava, together with marine limestone of the Devonian period. For more th ...
which is seen from
Plymouth Hoe
Plymouth Hoe, referred to locally as the Hoe, is a large south-facing open public space in the English coastal city of Plymouth, Devon.
The Hoe is adjacent to and above the low limestone cliffs that form the seafront and commands views of Pl ...
, a flat public area on top of
limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
cliffs. The
Unitary Authority
A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...
of Plymouth is .
The topography rises from sea level to a height, at
Roborough, of about above
Ordnance Datum
An ordnance datum (OD) is a vertical datum used by an ordnance survey as the basis for deriving altitudes on maps. A spot height may be expressed as above ordnance datum (AOD). Usually mean sea level (MSL) at a particular place is used for the d ...
(AOD).
Geologically, Plymouth has a mixture of limestone, Devonian
slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
,
granite
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
and Middle
Devonian
The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...
limestone.
Plymouth Sound, Shores and Cliffs is a
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...
, because of its geology. 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.
A band of Middle Devonian limestone runs west to east from
Cremyll to
Plymstock including the Hoe.
Local limestone may be seen in numerous buildings, walls and pavements throughout Plymouth.
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
Tungsten (also called wolfram) is a chemical element; it has symbol W and atomic number 74. It is a metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively in compounds with other elements. It was identified as a distinct element in 1781 and first ...
, lead and other minerals.
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.
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
boulevard
A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway or wide road in a commercial district.
In Europe, boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former ...
s aligned east–west linked by a north–south
avenue (Armada Way) linking the railway station with the vista of Plymouth Hoe.
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.
In suburban areas, post-War
prefabs had already begun to appear by 1946, and over 1,000 permanent
council house
A council house, corporation house or council flat is a form of British Public housing in the United Kingdom, public housing built by Local government in the United Kingdom, local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing ...
s were built each year from 1951 to 1957 according to the
Modernist
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
zoned low-density
garden city model advocated by Abercrombie.
By 1964 over 20,000 new homes had been built, more than 13,500 of them permanent council homes and 853 built by the
Admiralty.
Plymouth is home to 28 parks with an average size of .
Its largest park is
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
, with other sizeable green spaces including
Victoria Park,
Freedom Fields Park, Alexandra Park,
Devonport Park and the Hoe.
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 which reinforces links with the wider region in west Devon and east Cornwall in its Joint Local Plan and identifies three development areas within the city: the City centre and waterfront; a 'northern corridor' including Derriford and the vacant airfield site at
Roborough; and an 'eastern corridor' including major new settlements at
Sherford and
Langage. Plymouth is categorized as a Small-Port City using the Southampton System for port-city classification.
Climate
Plymouth has a moderated temperate
oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
''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 . 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.
The coldest month of February is similarly moderate, having mild mean minimum temperatures between . 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 of snow; more on higher ground. Another notable event was the of snowfall between 17 and 19 December 2010 – though only would lie at any one time due to melting. Over the 1961–1990 period, annual snowfall accumulation averaged less than per year.
South West England has a favoured location when the
Azores High
The Azores High also known as North Atlantic (Subtropical) High/Anticyclone or the Bermuda- High, is a large subtropical semi-permanent centre of high atmospheric pressure typically found south of the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean, at the Horse ...
pressure area extends north-eastwards towards the UK, particularly in summer. Coastal areas have average annual sunshine totals over 1,600 hours.
Owing to its geographic location, rainfall tends to be associated with Atlantic
depressions or with convection and is more frequent and heavier than in London and southeast England. The Atlantic depressions are more vigorous in autumn and winter and most of the rain which falls in those seasons in the south-west is from this source. Average annual rainfall is around . November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, with June to August having the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the south-west.
Typically, the warmest day of the year (1971–2000) will achieve a temperature of , although in July 2022 the temperature reached , the site record. On average, 4.25 days of the year will report a maximum temperature of or above. During the winter half of the year, the coldest night will typically fall to although in January 1979 the temperature fell to . Typically, 18.6 nights of the year will register an air frost.
Education

There are three universities based in Plymouth, the
University of Plymouth
The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...
,
Plymouth Marjon University and the
Arts University Plymouth.
The University of Plymouth enrolls 23,155 total students as of 2018/2019 (
largest in the UK out of ). It also employs 2,900 staff with an annual income of around £160 million.
It was founded in 1992 from Polytechnic South West (formerly Plymouth Polytechnic) following the
Further and Higher Education Act 1992
The Further and Higher Education Act 1992 made changes in the funding and administration of further education and higher education within England and Wales, with consequential effects on associated matters in Scotland which had previously been g ...
. It has a wide range of courses including those in marine focused business, marine engineering, marine biology and Earth, ocean and environmental sciences, surf science, shipping and logistics. The university formed a joint venture with the fellow Devonian
University of Exeter
The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...
in 2000, establishing the
Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry. The college is ranked 8th out of 30 universities in the UK in 2011 for medicine. Its dental school was established in 2006, which also provides free dental care in an attempt to improve access to dental care in the
South West.
The University of St Mark & St John (known as "Marjon" or "Marjons") specialises in
teacher training
Teacher education or teacher training refers to programs, policies, procedures, and provision designed to equip (prospective) teachers with the knowledge, attitude (psychology), attitudes, behaviors, approaches, methodologies and skills they requir ...
, and offers training across the country and abroad.
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.
The city is also home to two large colleges. The
City College Plymouth provides courses from the most basic to
Foundation degree
A foundation degree is a combined academic and vocational qualification in higher education in the United Kingdom, equivalent to two-thirds of an honours bachelor's degree. Foundation degrees were introduced by the Department for Education and ...
s for approximately 26,000 students.
Plymouth also has 71 state primary phase schools, 13 state secondary schools, eight special schools and three selective
state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...
s,
Devonport High School for Girls,
Devonport High School for Boys
Devonport High School for Boys is an 11–18 boys grammar school and Academy (English school), academy in Plymouth, Devon, England. It has around 1,150 boys, and its catchment area (human geography), catchment area includes southwest Devon and s ...
and
Plymouth High School for Girls. There is also a
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...
all-through school
Plymouth College.
The city was also home to the
Royal Naval Engineering College
The Royal Naval Engineering College was a specialist establishment for the training of Royal Navy engineers. It was founded as Keyham College in 1880, new buildings were opened in Manadon, Devon in 1940 and the old college site at Keyham close ...
; opened in 1880 in
Keyham, it trained engineering students for five years before they completed the remaining two years of the course at Greenwich. The college closed in 1910, but in 1940 a new college opened at
Manadon. This was renamed ''Dockyard Technical College'' in 1959 before finally closing in 1994; training was transferred to the
University of Southampton
The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...
.
Plymouth is home to the
Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom
The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (MBA) is a learned society with a scientific laboratory that undertakes research in marine biology. The organisation was founded in 1884 and has been based in Plymouth since the Citadel Hil ...
(MBA; founded 1884) which conducts research in all areas of the marine sciences. The
Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML; founded 1988) was formed in part from components of the MBA. Together with the
National Marine Aquarium, the
Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Sciences, Plymouth University's Marine Institute and the
Diving Diseases Research Centre, these marine-related organisations form the Plymouth Marine Sciences Partnership. The Plymouth Marine Laboratory, which focuses on global issues of
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
and
sustainability
Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...
. It monitors the effects of ocean acidity on
coral
Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...
s and
shellfish
Shellfish, in colloquial and fisheries usage, are exoskeleton-bearing Aquatic animal, aquatic invertebrates used as Human food, food, including various species of Mollusca, molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish ...
and reports the results to the UK government. It also cultivates
algae
Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...
that could be used to make
biofuel
Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from Biomass (energy), biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricu ...
s or in the treatment of wastewater by using technology such as
photo-bioreactors. It works alongside the
Boots Group
Boots UK Limited (formerly Boots the Chemists Limited) is a British health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain that operates in the United Kingdom. It also operates internationally, including Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Thailand ...
to investigate the use of algae in skincare protects, taking advantage of the chemicals they contain that adapt to protect themselves from the sun.
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.
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
Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament.
Overview
The ONS is responsible fo ...
published that Plymouth's unitary authority area population was 256,384;
15,664 more people than that of the
last census from 2001, which indicated that Plymouth had a population of 240,720.
The Plymouth
urban area
An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...
had a population of 260,203 in 2011 (the
urban sprawl
Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...
which extends outside the authority's boundaries). The city's average household size was 2.3 persons. At the time of the 2021 UK census, the ethnic composition of Plymouth's population was 94.1%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
(of 89.5% was
White British
White British is an ethnicity classification used for the White population identifying as English, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Northern Irish, or British in the United Kingdom Census. In the 2011 census, the White British population was 49 ...
), with the largest minority ethnic group being
Chinese at 0.5%.
The white Irish ethnic group saw the largest decline in its share of the population since the 2001 Census to 2011 (−24%), while the ''Other Asian'' and Black African had the largest increases (360% and 351% respectively).
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
In economics, gross value added (GVA) is the measure of the value of goods and service (economics), services produced in an area, industry or sector of an economy. "The ''gross value added'' is the Value of output (economy), value of output minus t ...
(a measure of the size of its economy) was
£5,169 million in 2013 making up 25% of
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
's GVA.
Its GVA per person was £19,943 and compared to the national average of £23,755, was £3,812 lower.
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).
A 2014 profile by the
National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...
showed Plymouth had higher than average levels of poverty and deprivation (26.2% of the population among the poorest 20.4% nationally).
Life expectancy in Plymouth is 78.8 years for men and 82.5 for women
Economy

Because of its coastal location, the economy of Plymouth has traditionally been
maritime, in particular the defence sector with over 12,000 people employed and approximately 7,500 in the armed forces.
The
Plymouth Gin Distillery has been producing
Plymouth Gin
Plymouth Gin is a style and brand of gin that has been distilled on the same premises on the Barbican, Plymouth, Barbican in Plymouth, Devon, since 1793. The site of production, the Plymouth Gin Distillery, was built in 1431 and is reputed to ha ...
since 1793, which was exported around the world by the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
.
During the 1930s, it was the most widely distributed
gin
Gin () is a distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper berries and other botanical ingredients.
Gin originated as a medicinal liquor made by monks and alchemists across Europe. The modern gin was modified in Flanders and the Netherlands ...
and had a
controlled term of origin 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.
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.
Plymouth has the largest cluster of marine and maritime businesses in the south west with 270 firms operating within the sector. Other substantial employers include
the university with almost 3,000 staff,
the national retail chain
The Range at their
Estover headquarters, as well as the
Plymouth Science Park employing 500 people in 50 companies.
Plymouth has a post-war shopping area in the city centre with substantial pedestrianisation.
At the west end of the zone inside a grade II
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
is
the Pannier Market that was completed in 1959 – ''
pannier
A pannier is a basket, bag, box, or similar container, carried in pairs either slung over the back of a beast of burden, or attached to the sides of a bicycle or motorcycle. The term derives from a Middle English borrowing of the Old French ' ...
'' meaning "basket" from French, so it translates as "basket market". In terms of retail floorspace, Plymouth is ranked in the top five in the
South West, and 29th nationally. Plymouth was one of the first ten British cities to trial the new
Business improvement district
A business improvement district (BID) is a defined area within whichever businesses elect to pay an additional fee (or assessment) in order to fund projects within the district's boundaries. A BID is not a tax, as taxes fund the government. BID f ...
initiative. The
Tinside Pool is situated at the foot of the Hoe and became a grade II listed building in 1998 before being restored to its 1930s look for £3.4 million.
Plymouth 2020
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).
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.

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.
It received negative feedback before opening when David Mackay said it was already "ten years out of date".
It was awarded the first ever
Carbuncle Cup, awarded for Britain's ugliest building, in 2006. 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
The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. It is named after the architect James Stirling, organised and awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The ...
for Architecture in 2003.
Proposals included the demolition of the
Plymouth Pavilions
Plymouth Pavilions is an entertainment and sports complex in Plymouth, Devon, England. The arena is used as an entertainment venue and also for corporate hire.
The Pavilions is built on the site of the former Millbay railway station that is ...
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.
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 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. The removal and relocation of
Bretonside bus station—a site originally earmarked for the Council—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.
Jacka Bakery in the Barbican district is reputedly the oldest bakery in the UK, and has operated since the 1600s.
Transport
Railway
Plymouth railway station is served by two
train operating companies
In the railway system of Great Britain, a train operating company (TOC) is a railway undertaking operating passenger trains under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the privatisation of the network under the Railways ...
:
*
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...
operates inter-city services to , , , , , and ; local services run to . It also manages the station.
*
CrossCountry
CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the current CrossCountry franchise.
The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) in 2006, ...
operate services from the
South West to the
Midlands
The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...
,
North East and
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
; destinations include Bristol, , , , , , , and .
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
The Cornish Main Line is a railway line in Cornwall and Devon in the United Kingdom. It runs from Penzance to Plymouth, crossing from Cornwall into Devon over the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash.
It directly serves Truro, St Austell, Bodmin (by ...
, 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
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may ...
; these have since closed.
Future
There have been proposals to reopen the
Exeter to Plymouth railway of the LSWR which would connect
Cornwall
Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
and Plymouth to Exeter using the former
Southern Railway main line from Plymouth to Exeter via , because the main line through South Devon is vulnerable to damage from rough seas at , 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
A parkway is a landscaped thoroughfare. The term is particularly used for a roadway in a park or connecting to a park from which trucks and other heavy vehicles are excluded.
Over the years, many different types of roads have been labeled p ...
' 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
The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...
, about away near
Exeter
Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...
; 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.
There are three
Park and Ride
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail transport, r ...
services at
Milehouse, Coypool (
Plympton
Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient Stannary, stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down riv ...
) and George Junction (
Plymouth City Airport), which are operated by
Stagecoach South West except Milehouse park and ride. This is served by
Plymouth Citybus
Ferries

A regular international ferry service provided by
Brittany Ferries operates from
Millbay taking cars and foot passengers directly to France (
Roscoff) and Spain (
Santander) on the three ferries, ''
MV Armorique'', ''
MV Bretagne'' and ''
MV Pont-Aven''. The
Cremyll Ferry is a passenger ferry between
Stonehouse and the Cornish hamlet of
Cremyll, which is believed to have operated continuously since 1204. There is also a pedestrian ferry from the
Mayflower Steps to
Mount Batten
Mount Batten is a 24-metre (80-ft) tall outcrop of rock on a 600-metre (2000-ft) peninsula in Plymouth Sound, Devon, England, named after Sir William Batten (c.1600-1667), MP and Surveyor of the Navy; it was previously known as How Stert.
Af ...
, and an alternative to using the
Tamar Bridge via the
Torpoint Ferry (vehicle and pedestrian) across the
River Tamar
The Tamar (; ) is a river in south west England that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west). A large part of the valley of the Tamar is protected as the Tamar Valley National Landscape (an Area of Outsta ...
.
Air
The city's airport was
Plymouth City Airport about north of the city centre.
The airport was home to the local airline
Air Southwest
Air Southwest was a British airline founded by Sutton Harbour Holdings in 2003. Ownership was transferred to Eastern Airways in September 2010 but operations ceased 12 months later. It operated regional scheduled passenger services in South ...
,
which operated flights across the United Kingdom and Ireland. In June 2003, a report by the
South West RDA was published looking at the future of aviation in the south-west and the possible closure of airports. It concluded that the best option for the south-west was to close Plymouth City Airport and expand
Exeter International Airport and
Newquay Cornwall Airport, although it did conclude that this was not the best option for Plymouth. In April 2011, it was announced that the airport would close, which it did on 23 December. A local company, FlyPlymouth, put forward plans in 2015 to reopen the airport by 2018, providing daily services to various destinations including London, but as of now, these projects have stalled.
Cycle routes
Plymouth is at the southern end of the long
Devon Coast to Coast Cycle Route (
National Cycle Route 27
The Devon Coast to Coast Cycle Route is a 99-mile waymarked route from Ilfracombe in north Devon to Plymouth in south Devon. It skirts the National parks of England and Wales, National Parks of both Exmoor and Dartmoor and incorporates part of ...
). The route runs mostly traffic-free on off-road sections between Ilfracombe and Plymouth. The route uses former railway lines, though there are some stretches on public roads.
Religion

Plymouth has about 150 churches city-wide. The
Plymouth Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Saint Mary and Saint Boniface in Plymouth, England, is the seat of the Bishop of Plymouth and mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Plymouth, which covers the counties of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. The Diocese ...
is Roman Catholic, and is located in
Stonehouse. It was opened in 1858, and consecrated in 1880.
The city's oldest church is
Plymouth Minster, also known as St Andrew's Church, (
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
) located at the top of Royal Parade—it is the largest parish church in
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
and has been a site of gathering since AD 800.
The city also includes five
Baptist
Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...
churches, over twenty
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
chapels, and thirteen
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
churches. In 1831 the first
Brethren assembly in England, a movement of conservative non-denominational Evangelical Christians, was established in the city, so that Brethren are often called Plymouth Brethren, although the movement did not begin locally.
Plymouth has the first known reference to Jews in the
South West from Sir
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (bein ...
's voyages in 1577 to 1580, as his log mentioned "Moses the Jew" – a man from Plymouth.
The
Plymouth Synagogue is a
Listed Grade II* building, built in 1762 and is the
oldest Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...
Synagogue in the
English speaking world. There are also places of worship for
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
,
Baháʼí,
Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
,
Unitarianism
Unitarianism () is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian sect of Christianity. Unitarian Christians affirm the wikt:unitary, unitary God in Christianity, nature of God as the singular and unique Creator deity, creator of the universe, believe that ...
, Chinese beliefs and
Humanism
Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and Agency (philosophy), agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The me ...
.
42.5% of the population described themselves in the 2021 census return as being at least nominally Christian and 1.3% as Muslim with all other religions represented by less than 0.5% each. The portion of people without a religion is 48.9%, 5.9% did not state their religious belief. 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.
Culture

Built in 1815,
Union Street was at the heart of Plymouth's historical culture.
It became known as ''the servicemen's playground'', as it was where sailors from the Royal Navy would seek entertainment of all kinds.
During the 1930s, there were 30 pubs and it attracted such performers as
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
to the
New Palace Theatre.
It was described in 2008 as the late-night hub of Plymouth's entertainment strip.
Outdoor events and festivals are held including the annual
British Firework Championships in August, which attracts tens of thousands of people across the waterfront. In August 2006 the world record for the most simultaneous fireworks was surpassed, by Roy Lowry of the
University of Plymouth
The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...
, over
Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England.
Description
Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of abo ...
. From 2014 MTV Crashes Plymouth has taken place every July on Plymouth Hoe, hosting big-name acts such as The 1975, Little Mix, Tinie Tempah and Busted. Between 1992 and 2012 the Music of the Night celebration was performed in the
Royal Citadel by the
29 Commando Regiment and local performers to raise money for local and military charities. A number of other smaller cultural events taken place annually, including Plymouth Art Weekender, Plymouth Fringe Festival and Illuminate Festival.
The city's main theatre is
Theatre Royal Plymouth, presenting large-scale West End shows and smaller works as well as an extensive education and outreach programme. The main building is located in the city centre and contains three performance spaces – The Lyric (1,315 capacity), Drum Theatre (200 capacity), and The Lab (60 capacity) – and they also run their own specialised production and creative learning centre called TR2, based in Cattedown.
Plymouth Pavilions
Plymouth Pavilions is an entertainment and sports complex in Plymouth, Devon, England. The arena is used as an entertainment venue and also for corporate hire.
The Pavilions is built on the site of the former Millbay railway station that is ...
has multiple uses for the city staging music concerts, basketball matches and stand-up comedy. There are also three cinemas: Reel Cinema at Derrys Cross,
Plymouth Arts Centre at Looe Street and a
Vue cinema at the Barbican Leisure Park. Barbican Theatre, Plymouth delivers a theatre and dance programme of performances and workshops focused on young people and emerging artists contains a main auditorium (110 – 140 capacity) and rehearsal studio; they also host the B-Bar (80 capacity), which offers a programme of music, comedy and spoken word performance.
The Plymouth Athenaeum, which includes a local interest library, is a society dedicated to the promotion of learning in the fields of science, technology, literature and art. In 2017 its auditorium (340 capacity) returned to use as a theatre, having been out of service since 2009. The
Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery is operated by Plymouth City Council allowing free admission – it has six galleries.
Plymouth is the regional television centre of
BBC South West. A team of journalists are headquartered at Plymouth for the
ITV West Country regional station, after a merger with
ITV West
ITV or iTV may refer to:
Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including:
**ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...
forced
ITV Westcountry to close on 16 February 2009. The main local newspapers serving Plymouth are ''
The Herald,'' ''
Western Morning News'' and the Plymouth Chronicle with
Greatest Hits Radio Plymouth,
BBC Radio Devon
BBC Radio Devon is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Devon.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Mannamead area of Plymouth.
According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of ...
, and
Heart West being the local radio stations with the most listeners.
Sport

Plymouth is home to
Plymouth Argyle F.C., who, as of the 2025-26 season, play in the third tier of English football, Sky Bet League One. The team's home ground is called
Home Park and is located next to
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
. It links itself with the group of English non-conformists that left Plymouth for the
New World
The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
in 1620: its nickname is "The Pilgrims". The city also has three
Non-League football
Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...
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
The Southern League is a football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from East Anglia, the South and Midlands of England, and South Wales. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven a ...
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
Plymouth Raiders are a basketball team based in Plymouth, England, currently competing in Division 3 of the National Basketball League (England), National Basketball League.
Founded in 1983 through a merger between two local basketball clubs, ...
and
Plymouth Gladiators
The Plymouth Gladiators are a Motorcycle speedway, speedway team in the British SGB Championship. The team competed during various seasons from 1932 to 1969, before reforming after a gap of thirty-six years in 2006. In 2021, the club successful ...
.
Plymouth Albion Rugby Football Club is a
rugby union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
club that was founded in 1875 and are currently competing in the third tier of Professional English Rugby the
National League 1
National One, up until 2023 known as National League 1 and previously known before September 2009 as National Division Two), is the third of three national leagues in the domestic rugby union competition of England. It was known as Courage Lea ...
. They play at
the Brickfields.
In
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
, the city is represented by two teams;
Plymouth City Patriots, of the top-tier
British Basketball League
The British Basketball League (BBL) was a men's professional basketball sports league, league in Great Britain. Since its establishment in 1987 the BBL represented the highest level of basketball competition within the United Kingdom. The orga ...
, and
Plymouth Raiders
Plymouth Raiders are a basketball team based in Plymouth, England, currently competing in Division 3 of the National Basketball League (England), National Basketball League.
Founded in 1983 through a merger between two local basketball clubs, ...
of the
National Basketball League.
Plymouth Gladiators
The Plymouth Gladiators are a Motorcycle speedway, speedway team in the British SGB Championship. The team competed during various seasons from 1932 to 1969, before reforming after a gap of thirty-six years in 2006. In 2021, the club successful ...
are a
speedway
Speedway may refer to:
Racing Race tracks
*Daytona International Speedway, a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida.
*Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta.
*Indianapolis Motor Spe ...
team, currently competing in the British
National League
National League often refers to:
*National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada
*National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...
, with home meetings taking place at the
Plymouth Coliseum
Plymouth Coliseum, formerly known as St Boniface Arena, is a rugby field and speedway venue in Plymouth, Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bri ...
.
Plymouth cricket club was formed in 1843, the current 1st XI play in the Devon Premier League. Plymouth is also home to Plymouth Marjons Hockey Club, with their 1st XI playing in the National League last season.
Plymouth Mariners Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
club play in the South West Baseball League, they play their home games at Wilson Field in Central Park. Plymouth was home to an
American football
American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
club, the Plymouth Admirals until 2010.
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.
Public services

Since 1973 Plymouth has been supplied water by South West Water. Prior to the 1973 take over it was supplied by Plymouth County Borough Corporation. Before the 19th century two leats were built to provide drinking water for the town. They carried water from
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...
to Plymouth. A watercourse, known as Plymouth or Drake's Leat, was opened on 24 April 1591 to tap the River Meavy. The Devonport Leat was constructed to carry fresh drinking water to the expanding town of
Devonport and its ever-growing dockyard. It was fed by three Dartmoor rivers: The West Dart River, West Dart, Cowsic and Blackabrook. It seems to have been carrying water since 1797, but it was officially completed in 1801. It was originally designed to carry water to Devonport town but has since been shortened and now carries water to Burrator Reservoir, which feeds most of the water supply of Plymouth. Burrator Reservoir is located about north of the city and was constructed in 1898 and expanded in 1928.

Plymouth City Council is responsible for waste management throughout the city and South West Water is responsible for sewerage. Plymouth's electricity is supplied from the National Grid (UK), National Grid and distributed to Plymouth via Western Power Distribution. On the outskirts of
Plympton
Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient Stannary, stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down riv ...
a combined cycle gas-powered station, the Langage Power Station, which started to produce electricity for Plymouth at the end of 2009.
Her Majesty's Courts Service provide a Magistrates' court (England and Wales), magistrates' court and a Plymouth Law Courts, Combined Crown and County Court Centre in the city. The Plymouth Borough Police, formed in 1836, eventually became part of Devon and Cornwall Constabulary. There are police stations at Charles Cross and Crownhill (the Divisional HQ) and smaller stations at Plympton and Plymstock. The city has one of the Devon and Cornwall Area Crown Prosecution Service Divisional offices. Plymouth has five fire stations located in Camel's Head, Crownhill, Greenbank, Plymouth, Greenbank,
Plympton
Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient Stannary, stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down riv ...
and
Plymstock which is part of Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution have an Atlantic 85 class lifeboat and Severn class lifeboat stationed at Millbay Docks.
Plymouth is served by Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust and the city's National Health Service (England), NHS hospital is Derriford Hospital north of the city centre. The Royal Eye Infirmary is located at Derriford Hospital. South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust operates in Plymouth and the rest of the south west; its headquarters are in
Exeter
Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...
.
The mid-19th-century burial ground at Ford Park Cemetery was reopened in 2007 by a successful trust and the City council operate two large early 20th century cemeteries at Weston Mill and Efford both with crematoria and chapels. There is also a privately owned cemetery on the outskirts of the city, Drake Memorial Park which does not allow headstones to mark graves, but a brass plaque set into the ground.
Landmarks and tourist attractions
After the
English Civil War
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
the
Royal Citadel was erected in 1666 towards the eastern section of
Plymouth Hoe
Plymouth Hoe, referred to locally as the Hoe, is a large south-facing open public space in the English coastal city of Plymouth, Devon.
The Hoe is adjacent to and above the low limestone cliffs that form the seafront and commands views of Pl ...
, 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.
Further west is Smeaton's Tower, which is a standard lighthouse that was constructed in 1759. Furthermore, Smeaton's Tower was dismantled in 1877 and the top two-thirds were reassembled on Plymouth Hoe. It is open to the public and has views over the Plymouth Sound and the city from the lantern room. Plymouth has 20 war memorials of which nine are on Plymouth Hoe, 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
The Spanish Armada (often known as Invincible Armada, or the Enterprise of England, ) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by Alonso de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aristocrat without previous naval ...
.
The early port settlement of Plymouth, called "Sutton", approximates to the area now referred to as the
Barbican
A barbican (from ) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes.
Europe
Medieval Europeans typically b ...
and has 100
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
s and the largest concentration of cobblestone, cobbled streets in Britain. The
Pilgrim Fathers
The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English settlers who travelled to North America on the ship ''Mayflower'' and established the Plymouth Colony at what now is Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. John Smith had named ...
left for the
New World
The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
in 1620 near the commemorative
Mayflower Steps in Sutton Pool. Also on Sutton Pool is the
National Marine Aquarium which displays 400 marine species and includes Britain's deepest aquarium tank.
upstream on the opposite side of the
River Plym
The River Plym is a river in Devon, England. It runs from Dartmoor in the centre of the county southwest to meet the River Meavy, then south towards Plymouth Sound. The river is popular with canoeists, and the Plym Valley Railway runs alongside ...
is the Saltram House, Saltram estate, which has a Jacobean architecture, Jacobean and Georgian architecture, Georgian mansion.
On the northern outskirts of the city, Crownhill Fort is a well-restored example of a "Palmerston forts, Palmerston's Folly". It is owned by the Landmark Trust and is open to the public.
To the west of the city is
Devonport, one of Plymouth's historic quarters. As part of Devonport's millennium regeneration project, the ''Devonport Heritage Trail'' has been introduced, complete with over 70 waymarkers outlining the route.
Plymouth is often used as a base by visitors to
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...
, the
Tamar Valley and the beaches of south-east
Cornwall
Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
. Kingsand, Cawsand and Whitsand Bay are popular.
The Roland Levinsky Building, the landmark building of the
University of Plymouth
The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...
, 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.
Beckley Point, at 78m / 20 floors, is Plymouth's tallest building and was completed on 8 February 2018. It was designed by Boyes Rees Architects and built by contractors Kier Group, Kier.
File:SmeatonsTower2006.JPG, Smeaton's Tower
File:Plymouth Sound and Breakwater.jpg, Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England.
Description
Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of abo ...
and Plymouth Breakwater, Breakwater
File:Britannia-Statue.jpg, National Armada memorial (Britannia)
File:War memorial, Plymouth.jpg, Naval War Memorial
File:Plymouth Barbican and harbour.jpg, The Parade, Barbican
A barbican (from ) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes.
Europe
Medieval Europeans typically b ...
File:MayflowerSteps.jpg, The Mayflower Steps Memorial
File:Saltram House 2008.jpg, Saltram House remodelled by the architect Robert Adam
File:Beckley Point, Plymouth (geograph 5778842).jpg, Beckley Point
Notable people
People from Plymouth are known as Plymothians or less formally as Janners. Its meaning is described as a person from
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
, deriving from Cousin Jan (the
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
form of John (first name), John), but more particularly in Royal Navy, naval circles anyone from the Plymouth area.
The Elizabethan navigator, Sir
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (bein ...
was born in the nearby town of Tavistock, Devon, Tavistock and was the mayor of Plymouth. He was the first English people, Englishman to circumnavigate the world and was known by the Spanish as ''El Draco'' meaning "The Dragon" after he raided many of their ships. He died of dysentery in 1596 off the coast of Portobelo, Panama. In 2002 a mission to recover his body and bring it to Plymouth was allowed by the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence. His cousin and contemporary John Hawkins (naval commander), John Hawkins was a Plymouth man.
Painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, founder and first president of the Royal Academy was born and educated in nearby
Plympton
Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient Stannary, stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down riv ...
, now part of Plymouth.
William Cookworthy born in Kingsbridge set up his successful porcelain business in the city and was a close friend of
John Smeaton
John Smeaton (8 June 1724 – 28 October 1792) was an English civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent scholar, who introduced various ...
designer of the Eddystone Lighthouse. Benjamin Robert Haydon, an English painter who specialised in grand historical pictures, was born here in 1786. The naturalist William Elford Leach, who did much to pave the way in Britain for Charles Darwin, was born at Hoe Gate in 1791.
Antarctic explorers Robert Falcon Scott who was born in Plymouth and Frank Bickerton both lived in the city. Artists include Beryl Cook whose paintings depict the culture of Plymouth and Robert Lenkiewicz, whose paintings investigated themes of Vagrancy (people), vagrancy, sexual behaviour and suicide, lived in the city from the 1960s until his death in 2002. Illustrator and creator of children's series Mr Benn and King Rollo, David McKee, was born and brought up in South Devon and trained at Plymouth College of Art. Jazz musician John Surman, born in nearby Tavistock, Devon, Tavistock, has close connections to the area, evidenced by his 2012 album Saltash Bells. The avant-garde prepared guitarist Keith Rowe was born in the city before establishing the jazz free improvisation band AMM (group), AMM in London in 1965 and M.I.M.E.O., MIMEO in 1997. The musician and film director Cosmo Jarvis has lived in several towns in South Devon and has filmed videos in and around Plymouth. In addition, actors Sir Donald Sinden and Judi Trott were born in Plymouth. George Passmore of Turner Prize winning duo Gilbert and George was also born in the city, as was Labour politician
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British politician who was Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. Foot beg ...
whose family reside at nearby Trematon Castle.
Notable athletes include swimmer Sharron Davies, diver Tom Daley (diver), Tom Daley, dancer Wayne Sleep, and footballer Trevor Francis. Other past residents include composer journalist and newspaper editor William Henry Wills (journalist), William Henry Wills, Ron Goodwin, and journalist Angela Rippon and comedian Dawn French. Canadian politician and legal scholar Chris Axworthy hails from Plymouth. America based actor Donald Moffat, whose roles include American Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson in the film ''The Right Stuff (film), The Right Stuff'', and fictional President Bennett in ''Clear and Present Danger (film), Clear and Present Danger'', was born in Plymouth. Canadian actor Mark Holden (actor), Mark Holden 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.
Twin city
*
Brest, France
*
Gdynia
Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With an estimated population of 257,000, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk ...
, Poland
*
Novorossiysk
Novorossiysk (, ; ) is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is one of the largest ports on the Black Sea. It is one of the few cities designated by the Soviet Union as a Hero City. The population was
History
In antiquity, the shores of the ...
, Russia
* Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States
*
San Sebastián
San Sebastián, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián (, ), is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from the France–Spain border ...
, Spain
* Jiaxing, China
Freedom of the City
The following People, Military Units and Organisations and Groups have received the Freedom of the City of Plymouth.
Individuals
* Mark Ormrod (Royal Marine), Mark Ormrod: 22 November 2021.
* Tom Daley, Thomas Robert Daley: 17 February 2022.
* Lewis Pugh: 27 March 2023.
* Heather Knight (cricketer), Heather Knight: 27 March 2023.
Military Units
*
42 Commando, Royal Marines, RM: 1955.
* The Merchant Navy: 22 March 2009.
* The Rifles: 25 September 2010.
* The Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit Derriford Hospital, Derriford: 30 January 2023.
Organisations and Groups
* Veterans of the Falklands War: 25 June 2022.
* The Federation of Plymouth and District Ex-Services Associations: 19 June 2023.
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
*
*
*
*
* ''N.B. Carew refers to Plymouth Hoe as "the Hawe at Plymmouth"''
* ''N.B. the publication carries the date 1943, although published on 27 April 27, 194
'
* 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
Plymouth City Council website
Plymouth City Council's open data website
{{Authority control
Plymouth, Devon,
Cities in South West England
Towns in Devon
Non-metropolitan districts of Devon
Populated coastal places in Devon
Port cities and towns in South West England
Unitary authority districts of England
Unparished areas in Devon
Boroughs in England
Former civil parishes in Devon