Bedford Street, Plymouth, c. 1882
World War II left Plymouth reeling. A major port city that bore the brunt of the Luftwaffe’s attacks on the nights of 1941. With over 18,000 houses damaged, and nearly 4,000 destroyed, a plan was needed to help stitch back together the urban fabric of Plymouth.
80 years after the publishing of a plan to rebuild Plymouth, how much of it came to fruition?
History
Plymouth, England, traces its history back to its prime location as a natural harbour. From its beginnings as a trading post, Plymouth rose to become a vital player in England’s maritime dealings.
The 16th century witnessed a surge in the town’s importance, becoming a launchpad for exploration and colonisation efforts. Sir Francis Drake famously set sail from Plymouth in 1577 on his history-making voyage that circumnavigated the globe. Notably, the Pilgrims set sail aboard the Mayflower from Plymouth in 1620, establishing the Plymouth Colony in the New World, now modern-day Massachusetts.
This maritime focus continued into the 17th century. The establishment of a dockyard in nearby Devonport solidified the city’s role as a cornerstone of the Royal Navy. Devonport Dockyard wasn’t just for repairs and maintenance, it became a prolific shipbuilding centre. Throughout the Industrial Revolution, Plymouth thrived as a major mercantile port, its docks handling trade with all corners of the globe. While Plymouth flourished in commerce, Devonport continued its shipbuilding specialisation, constructing ever more powerful battleships for Britain’s growing fleet. Over 300 naval vessels were built there, the last being HMS Scylla.
His Majesty’s Naval Base, Devonport, now stands as the largest in Europe and is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy. It’s also the sole repair and refuelling station for the Royal Navy’s Nuclear Submarines.
This strategic importance and the concentration of naval resources would make Plymouth a prime target during the devastation of World War II.
Shopping in Plymouth during the war. Image: The Imperial War Museum
Map of Plymouth, c. 1854.
Devonport Dockyard with HMS Impregnable in foreground, c. 1900.
The War
Plymouth experienced raids by the German Luftwaffe from 1940. The Royal Dockyard at Devonport was the target, however, few bombs struck the site. Instead, there were high civilian casualties, and the docks continued operations.
The first bombs fell on the city on Saturday 6 July 1940 at North Prospect, killing three people. In early 1941, five raids reduced much of the city to rubble.
The impact was horrific. Incendiary bombs caused widespread fires, while high explosives reduced buildings to rubble. The city centre was almost completely destroyed, with thousands of homes obliterated and vital infrastructure crippled.
There were 59 bomb attacks in total, which killed 1,172 civilians, and injured 4,448 others. Over 18,000 houses were damaged, with nearly 4,000 being destroyed. The events are referred to as The Plymouth Blitz.
In this town that was wasting away in reddish trails of smoke, only a few citizens wandered: the others were still in hiding; or lay, all distress ended, under the ruins.
Rebuilding
Post-war Plymouth was unrecognisable. Widespread bombing had made thousands homeless and left a once busy city centre in ruin. While bombs rained down on the city, the City Council appointed eminent town planner Professor Patrick Abercrombie to prepare a plan for the city’s reconstruction.
A professor of Town Planning at University College London, Abercrombie asserted his dominance through the creation of reports for not only Plymouth but Hull, Bath, Edinburgh and Bournemouth as well.
The plans, co-authored by James Paton Watson, were sweeping. Old Victorian streets were to be demolished to create room for wide dual carriageways, and low-density housing was to be cleared to make way for dominant concrete mid-rise buildings.
Such the post-war style, many buildings in the city centre were constructed with harsh concrete facades. This style can be seen in many towns which had extensive post-war construction, notably new towns like Crawley and Milton Keynes.
Although the brutalist style wasn’t for everyone:
Poor Plymouth. It was badly blitzed in the Second World War and then subjected to slash and burn by its city fathers. The modern visitor will find it a maze of concrete blocks, ill-sited towers and ruthless road schemes. Most of this damage was done by one man, Patrick Abercrombie, in the 1950s. The old Barbican district would, in France or Germany, have had its façades restored or rebuilt. Here new buildings were inserted with no feeling for the texture of the old lanes and alleys.
Historic areas of Plymouth, such as The Barbican and Sutton Harbour, also suffered major losses during the war. Many buildings were damaged at least partially. A map in the report shows which buildings needed restoration, with buildings in red showing buildings damaged beyond repair.
Image: The Box, Plymouth.
Looking closer at the plan
In the 147-page report, Abercrombie and Watson detail every aspect of the new city. Based on the Beaux Arts ‘City Beautiful’ style, the plans were influenced by both Lutyens’ plan for New Delhi and the formation of Welwyn Garden City.
Cutting the city centre into areas for Government, Culture, Shopping, Civic, Residential, and Industrial purposes, Abercrombie separated the zones with wide, tree-lined, streets.
With the exception of Union Street, all other streets in the city centre were to be erased and replaced with a grand vista leading from Naval Memorial on Plymouth Hoe to Plymouth railway station, intersected by new roads and lined by modern buildings.
Construction began in 1948 and was completed by 1962. Plymouth was the only city to retain its wartime plans, and many of them came to fruition.
Below you can see the Abercrombie plan overlaid onto the modern street network. Dragging the slider across shows how much of the street layout in the plan survives to this day.
Image: The Box, Plymouth.
Illustrations
Image: The Box, Plymouth.
Image: The Box, Plymouth.
Within the report, Abercrombie and Watson illustrate how the new vistas would look. Detailed sketches show many angles of key buildings and junctions. Below you can see the view from the Guildhall, looking up Mayflower Street towards the train station. The plan shows several round parks, some acting as roundabouts. On the right is the proposed junction of Mayflower Street with Cobourg Street at the North of the City Centre. This is the location of the current North Cross Roundabout and shows a proposed station hotel to the North, which was never built. Two impressive towers stand at the top of Mayflower Street, which were never constructed.
The next 80 years
80 years on from the report, Abercrombie and Watson’s plan still dominates Plymouth’s look and feel. The street layout is almost untouched from the 1944 design, but many buildings and public places have been demolished or extensively remodelled. Most post-war buildings are reaching the end of their usable life, and as Plymouth seems to be in a 21st-century renaissance, more public spending brings a revitalisation to areas long neglected. With a modern-day society so aware of Climate Change, Plymouth’s car-dominated design, with wide dual carriageways choking the city centre, may cause pressure on the local council to begin handing public space, dedicated to cars, back to the citizens.
Many iconic post-war buildings have been Grade listed in recent years, meaning they’re here to stay.
It’s anyone’s guess what Plymouth will look like in another 80 years.
Plymouth Hoe, c. 1960