Editing Plymouth (section)

=== ''Plan for Plymouth'' 1943 ===
During the [[First World War]], Plymouth was the port of entry for many troops from around the [[British Empire|Empire]]. It was developed as a facility for the manufacture of [[munitions]].<ref name="PD-GreatWar">{{cite web |last=Moseley |first=Brian |date=21 February 2013 |title=The Great War, 1914–1918 |url=http://www.plymouthdata.info/Great%20War.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131128035820/http://www.plymouthdata.info/Great%20War.htm |archive-date=28 November 2013 |access-date=13 February 2015 |website=The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |publisher=Plymouth Data}}</ref> Although major units of the Royal Navy moved to the safety of [[Scapa Flow]], Devonport was an important base for escort vessels and repairs. Flying boats operated from Mount Batten.<ref name="PD-GreatWar" />

[[File:Gateway to Royal William Victualling Yard.jpg|thumb|left|[[Royal William Victualling Yard]], [[Stonehouse, Plymouth|Stonehouse]] by [[John Rennie the Younger|Sir John Rennie]], 1825–1833]]
[[File:Plymouth Drake's Island.jpg|thumb|Plymouth Drake's Island (1860s–1880s) by [[Francis Frith]]]]
During the Second World War, [[HMNB Devonport|Devonport]] was the headquarters of [[Western Approaches Command]] until 1941, and [[Short Sunderland|Sunderland]] flying boats were operated by the [[Royal Australian Air Force]]. It was an important embarkation point for US troops for [[D-Day]].<ref>{{cite web |title=D-Day in Plymouth, Uk, And American Infantry |url=http://www.cyber-heritage.co.uk/waiting/day.htm |access-date=17 September 2012 |publisher=Cyber-heritage.co.uk |archive-date=4 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130404010138/http://www.cyber-heritage.co.uk/waiting/day.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The city was heavily bombed by the [[Luftwaffe]], in a series of 59 raids known as the [[Plymouth Blitz]].<ref name="legacy" /> Although the [[HMNB Devonport|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.<ref name="gillww2">{{Cite book |last=Gill |first=Crispin |title=Plymouth. A New History |publisher=Devon Books |year=1993 |isbn=0-86114-882-7 |pages=259–262}}</ref> [[Charles Church, Plymouth|Charles Church]] was hit by [[Incendiary device|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.<ref>{{Cite news |date=17 November 2005 |title=Frosty response to church climb |publisher=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/4444690.stm |access-date=22 November 2008 |archive-date=15 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115042703/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/4444690.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The redevelopment of the city was planned by [[Patrick Abercrombie|Sir Patrick Abercrombie]] in his 1943 ''Plan for Plymouth'' whilst simultaneously working on the reconstruction plan for London.<ref name="jeremy">{{Cite book |last=Gould |first=Jeremy |title=Architecture and the Plan for Plymouth: The Legacy of a British City |date=March 2007 |publisher=Architectural Review}}</ref> This initially included plans to expand the city into [[Caradon|south east Cornwall]], but these were abandoned after opposition from [[Cornwall County Council]].<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Philip Payton |author1-link=Philip Payton |title=Inconvenient Peripheries: Ethnic Identity and the "United Kingdom Estate" - the cases of "Protestant Ulster" and Cornwall |journal=Contemporary Political Studies |date=1996 |volume=1 |pages=395–408 |publisher=[[Political Studies Association]]}}</ref> Between 1951 and 1957 over 1000 homes were completed every year, mostly using innovative prefabricated systems of just three main types.<ref name="EHModern">{{Cite book |last=Gould |first=Jeremy |title=Plymouth; Vision of a Modern City |publisher=English Heritage |year=2010}}</ref>

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.<ref name="EHModern" /><ref name="gillredev">{{Cite book |last=Gill |first=Crispin |title=Plymouth. A New History |publisher=Devon Books |year=1993 |isbn=0-86114-882-7 |pages=262–267}}</ref> Most of the city centre shops had been destroyed and those that remained were cleared to enable a zoned reconstruction according to his plan.<ref name="EHModern" /><ref name="gillredev" /> In 1962 the [[modernist]] high rise of the [[Plymouth Civic Centre|Civic Centre]] was constructed, an architecturally significant example of mid-twentieth century civic slab-and-tower set piece. The [[Plymouth City Council]] allowed it to fall into disrepair but it was [[grade II listed]] in 2007 by [[English Heritage]] to prevent its demolition.<ref name="EHModern" /><ref>{{cite web |date=15 October 2010 |title=Sale of Plymouth Civic Centre |url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/sale-of-plymouth-civic-centre/ |access-date=17 September 2012 |publisher=English Heritage |archive-date=7 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120807142523/http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/sale-of-plymouth-civic-centre/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Post-war, Devonport Dockyard was kept busy refitting aircraft carriers such as the {{HMS|Ark Royal|R09|2}} and, later, [[nuclear submarines]]. New light industrial factories were constructed in the newly [[zoning|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,<ref name="gillredev" /> but the city remains home to [[29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/members-29-commandment-regiment-royal-7081759 |title=Members of the 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery make Plymouth 'proud' |last=Simpson |first=Zhara |date=14 May 2022 |website=www.plymouthherald.co.uk |publisher=Local World Holdings Ltd |access-date=27 June 2022}}</ref> and also [[42 Commando]] of the [[Royal Marines]].<ref name="gillredev" />