Editing Plymouth Hoe (section)

==History==
{{quote box|align=right|quoted=1|quote=John Lucas, sergeant, had 8d. for cutting Gogmagog.|source=—An audit book of 1514.<ref name="br4">{{cite book|last=Bracken|first=C. W.|title=A History of Plymouth and her Neighbours|publisher=Underhill|location=Plymouth|year=1931|pages=4}}</ref>}} Until the early 17th century large outline images of the giants [[Gog and Magog]] (or [[Gogmagog (folklore)|Goemagot]] and [[Corineus]]) had for a long time been cut into the turf of the Hoe exposing the white limestone beneath.<ref>{{Cite book
| publisher = The Mint Press
| isbn = 1-903356-32-6
| last = Gray
| first = Todd
| title = Lost Devon: Creation, Change and Destruction over 500 Years
| location = Exeter, Devon
| year = 2003
|pages = 153
}}</ref><ref>An early and explicit reference is made in [[Richard Carew (antiquary)|Richard Carew]] (1602), ''The Survey of Cornwall'', text here:[http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/srvcr10.txt]. Note that Carew refers to Plymouth Hoe as "the Hawe at Plymmouth".</ref> These figures were periodically re-cut and cleaned.<ref name="br4"/> No trace of them remains today, but this likely commemorates the [[Cornwall|Cornish]] foundation myth, being the point – ''Lam Goemagot'', {{gloss|the Giant's Leap}} – from which the Giant was cast into the sea by the hero Corineus.<ref>Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae 1.12–16 [[s:History of the Kings of Britain/Book 1#16|on Wikisource]]</ref>

Plymouth Hoe is perhaps best known for the probably apocryphal story that Sir [[Francis Drake]] played his famous game of [[bowls]] here in 1588 while waiting for the tide to change before sailing out with the English fleet to engage with the [[Spanish Armada]]. The British Library holds a [http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/unvbrit/a/001cotaugi00001u00041000.html 1591 Spry map of Plimmouth] from this era.

A [[Tudor architecture|Tudor]] [[fortress]] guarded the neck of water between the eastern Hoe and [[Mount Batten]] and some sheer granite and limestone cannon points remain, however in the late 1660s, following [[Stuart Restoration|The Restoration]], a massive star-shaped stone fortress known as the [[Royal Citadel, Plymouth|Royal Citadel]], was constructed to replace it. Its purpose was to protect the port and probably also to intimidate the townsfolk who had leaned towards Parliament during the [[English Civil War|Civil War]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Buildings of England – Devon |author1=Bridget Cherry  |author2=Nikolaus Pevsner  |name-list-style=amp |publisher=Penguin |location=Harmondsworth [Eng.] |year=1989 |pages=648 |isbn=0-14-071050-7}}</ref> It remains occupied by the military.

[[Image:The Colonnade, Plymouth.jpg|thumb|left|The Belvedere]]
From 1880 there was a popular bandstand on the Hoe. It was removed for scrap metal during the [[Second World War]] and never rebuilt.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.plymouthdata.info/Hoe%20Bandstand.htm
|title= Hoe Bandstand
|publisher=Plymouth Data
| date = May 2011
| website = The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130928230446/http://www.plymouthdata.info/Hoe%20Bandstand.htm
| archive-date = 28 September 2013
| access-date = 13 February 2015
|last=Moseley
|first=Brian
}}</ref> A three tier belvedere built in 1891 survives;<ref name="pbb">{{cite web
|url=http://www.plymouthdata.info/Belvedere.htm
|title=Plymouth, Belvedere and Bull Ring
|publisher=Plymouth Data
| date = October 2011
| website = The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130928225758/http://www.plymouthdata.info/Belvedere.htm
| archive-date = 28 September 2013
| access-date = 13 February 2015
|last=Moseley
|first=Brian
}}</ref> it was built on the site of a [[camera obscura]], probably built in the 1830s, which showed views of the harbour.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.plymouthdata.info/Camera%20Obscura.htm
|title=Camera Obscura
|publisher=Plymouth Data
| date = May 2011
| website = The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130928225830/http://www.plymouthdata.info/Camera%20Obscura.htm
| archive-date = 28 September 2013
| access-date = 13 February 2015
|last=Moseley
|first=Brian
}}</ref> Below this site was the Bull Ring (now a memorial garden),<ref name="pbb"/> and a grand pleasure pier, started in 1880, which provided a dance hall, refreshment, promenading and a landing place for boat trips.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.plymouthdata.info/Promenade%20Pier.htm
|title=Plymouth, Promenade Pier
|publisher=Plymouth Data
| date = January 2011
| website = The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130807172112/http://www.plymouthdata.info/Promenade%20Pier.htm
| archive-date = 7 August 2013
| access-date = 13 February 2015
|last=Moseley
|first=Brian
}}</ref> The pier was destroyed by German bombing in World War II.

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 Western Yacht Club. The club then merged with the Royal Southern and occupied that club's older premises which it had created from the regency public steam baths by the basin at West Hoe before the rejuvenated club moved in the late 1980s to Queen Anne Battery.