Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(see 33)
C2
32
Terrace
B4
Drinking & Nightlife
33
Bar Rhodes
B4
34
Dolphin
D3
35
Minerva
C2
Entertainment
36
Annabel's
D2
37
H2O
C2
C2
B2
D2
Shopping
41
Drake Circus Shopping Centre
C1
History
Plymouth has long been the port of choice for explorers and adventurers. It farewelled Sir
Francis Drake on his circumnavigation of the globe, Sir Walter Raleigh on his colony-
building trip to Virginia, the fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada, the pilgrims who
founded America, and countless boats carrying emigrants to Australia and New Zealand.
During the 1940s Plymouth, a Royal Dockyard, suffered horrendously at the hands of
the Luftwaffe. More than 1000 civilians died in the Blitz and the city centre was reduced
to rubble. The crisp lines of the post-bombing rebuild can be seen above the shopfronts
lining pedestrianised streets. In the 21st-century the defence sector remains crucial;
Devonport Dockyard employs 2500 people, while scores of Royal Navy vessels and hun-
dreds of troops are still Plymouth-based.
