Plymouth Hoe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (October 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Image:Plymouth hoe from mountbatten.jpg

Plymouth Hoe from Mount Batten

Plymouth Hoe, referred to locally as the Hoe, is a large south facing open public space in the English coastal city of Plymouth. The Hoe is adjacent to and above the rocky seafront and commands magnificent views of Plymouth Sound, Drake's Island, and across the Hamoaze to Mount Edgcumbe in Cornwall. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon word Hoe, a sloping ridge shaped like an inverted foot and heel.

It is generally believed that a huge outline composite image of the giants Gog and Magog was for a long time cut into the grass and the surface of the limestone beneath. No trace remains. In the city archive there is a receipt for a bill paid by the Earl of Mount Edgecumbe for the weeding and cleaning of the giant.

Plymouth Hoe is perhaps best known for the fact that Sir Francis Drake is believed to have played his famous game of bowls there, while waiting for wind and tide to change before he and the English fleet sailed out for the series of engagements leading to the eventual defeat of the Spanish Armada. A statue of Drake (a copy of the original in his home town of Tavistock) stands on the Hoe to commemorate him. .There are also various war memorials along the northern side, the most imposing and dignified is that commemorating the Royal Naval dead of the two world wars.

A prominent landmark on the Hoe is Smeaton's Tower. This is the upper portion of John Smeaton's Eddystone Lighthouse, which was originally built on the Eddystone Rocks (22.5 km south) in 1759. It was dismantled in 1877 and moved, stone by stone, to the Hoe where it was re-erected.^[1].

During Victorian times, the Hoe boasted a popular bandstand and below the three tier belvedere, built to commemorate the old Queen's jubilee, there was a grand pleasure pier providing dance hall,refreshment and promenading as well as a landing place for boat trips. The bandstand and pier were destroyed by German bombing but a small earlier building constructed as a camera obscura remains overlooking the sea south west of the Smeaton Tower. There is an imposing series of Victorian terraces to the west of the naval memorial which previously continued to the Grand Hotel and, until it was destroyed by bombing, the grand clubhouse of the Royal Southern Yacht Club.The club then merged with the Royal Western and occupied the old public steam bath premises by the basin at West Hoe before moving in the late 1980s to Queen Anne Battery. For forty years, there has been controversy about development on the edges of the Hoe green space. The erection of two discount hotel chain box buildings, at the southern end of Armada Way and the other at the Sound end of Leigham Street, look plain and soulless compared with the Victorian surroundings. Application has been made to turn the Grand into flats and the long derelict yacht club site has now been filled by a stark flat monolithic block of expensive glass and concrete flats. The Plymouth Dome, an idiosyncratic turret and domed building, built into a very small old quarry site above Tinside as an historical theme tourist attraction, failed to attract enough tourists or locals and has closed but may be converted into a cafeteria.

Smeaton's Tower overlooks Tinside Pool, an unusual 1930s outdoor lido which sits upon the limestone shoreline at the base of the cliff. Most of the works to create the swimming areas and Madiera Road were carried out to make work for the local unemployed during the Depression. The Hoe also includes a long broad tarmacked promenade (currently a disabled motorists car park) which serves as a spectacular military parade ground and which is often used for displays by Plymouth based Royal Navy,Royal Marines, the Army garrison, as well as for funfairs and open-air concerts.

At the eastern end of the Hoe is the large Charles II stone fortress the Royal Citadel, built after the Restoration to protect the port and intimidate the townsfolk who had leaned towards Parliament during the civil war. Set into the shape of the southern sea facing fortifications is the world renown Marine Biological Laboratory and below and to the east, perched on the rocky foreshore is the clubhouse of the Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club.

The Hoe is a very popular area for Plymothians and visitors none of whom seem to tire of the awe inspiring openness and beauty of the views. There is always a great deal of activity on the water, plenty to see including frequent warship movements, ferries going and coming from France and Spain, fishing trawlers and a swarm of larger and smaller sailing boats. The Fastnet yacht race ends here. There are annual three day national firework championships attracting tens of thousands of spectators.

Plymouth Hoe should not be confused with Hooe, an eastern suburb of Plymouth located beside Hooe Lake.