Editing Plymouth Hoe

{{Short description|Public space in Plymouth, England}}
{{Redirect|The Hoe|other uses|Hoe (disambiguation){{!}}Hoe}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}

[[Image:Plymouth Hoe from Mount Batten (crop).jpg|right|thumb|500px|Plymouth Hoe from [[Mount Batten]] in 2006]]
'''Plymouth Hoe''', referred to locally as '''the Hoe''', is a large south-facing open public space in the English coastal city of [[Plymouth]], [[Devon]]. 

The Hoe is adjacent to and above the low [[limestone]] cliffs that form the seafront and commands views of [[Plymouth Sound]], [[Drake's Island]], and across the [[Hamoaze]] to [[Mount Edgcumbe Country Park|Mount Edgcumbe]] in [[Cornwall]]. The name derives from the [[Old English|Anglo-Saxon]] word ''hoh'', a sloping ridge shaped like an inverted foot and heel (a term that survives in a few other placenames, notably [[Sutton Hoo]]).<ref>{{cite book|title=How place names began, and how they develop|last=Matthews|first=Constance Mary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9EUjAAAAMAAJ|year=1974|publisher=Lutterworth Press|isbn=9780718820060}}</ref>

==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.

==Landmarks==
[[Image:Smeatons Lighthouse on Plymouth Hoe.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Smeaton's Tower]], as re-erected on Plymouth Hoe]]
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]], located {{convert|14|mi|km|1}} to the south, in 1759. It was dismantled in 1877 and moved, stone by stone, to the Hoe where it was re-erected.<ref name=thinfo>{{cite web
| title = Eddystone Lighthouse
| url = http://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/interactive/gallery/eddystone.html
| publisher = [[Trinity House]]
| access-date = 6 September 2006}}</ref>

Smeaton's Tower overlooks [[Tinside Lido]], a 1930s outdoor pool or [[Lido (swimming pool)|lido]] which sits upon the limestone shoreline at the base of the cliff. Most of the works to create the swimming areas and Madeira Road were carried out to make work for the local unemployed during the Depression.

A statue of Sir Francis Drake by [[Joseph Boehm]] (a copy of the original in his home town of [[Tavistock]]) was placed here in 1884 to commemorate him.<ref name="NP">{{cite book
|title=The Buildings of England – Devon
|author= Cherry, Bridget & [[Nikolaus Pevsner|Pevsner, Nikolaus]]
|publisher=Penguin
|location=Harmondsworth, Middlesex
|year=1989
|pages=665
|isbn=0-14-071050-7
}}</ref> There are also several war memorials along the northern side of the Hoe. The largest commemorates the Royal Naval dead of the two world wars; its central obelisk is by [[Robert Lorimer]] and was unveiled in 1924, while the surrounding sunken garden was added by [[Edward Maufe]] in 1954.<ref name="NP" /><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://plymouthdata.info/Memorial-Naval%20War.htm
|title=Plymouth, Naval War Memorial
|publisher=Plymouth Data
|access-date=2 March 2008
|last=Moseley
|first=Brian |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071011221850/http://www.plymouthdata.info/Memorial-Naval%20War.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 11 October 2007}}</ref> The [[Armada Memorial]] was opened in 1888 to celebrate the tercentenary of the [[Spanish Armada]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Worth|first1=Richard|title=History of Plymouth: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time|date=1890|publisher=W. Brenden|location=Plymouth|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyplymouth02wortgoog/page/n71 51]–54|url=https://archive.org/details/historyplymouth02wortgoog}}</ref>

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 [[travelling funfair]]s and open-air concerts.

Set into the shape of the southern sea facing fortifications of the [[Royal Citadel, Plymouth|Royal Citadel]] is the Citadel Hill Laboratory of the [[Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom|Marine Biological Association of the UK]], which also houses the [[Continuous Plankton Recorder|Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science]]. Below and to the east, perched on the rocky foreshore is the clubhouse of the Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club.

==Tourism==

The Hoe is a popular area for Plymothians and visitors. There is always a great deal of activity on the water, 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 race|Fastnet yacht race]] ends here. The annual two-day [[British Firework Championships]] attracts tens of thousands of spectators.

For forty years, there has been controversy about development on the edges of the Hoe green space.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} The erection of two discount hotel chain buildings, at the southern end of Armada Way and the other at the Sound end of Leigham Street, contrast with their Victorian surroundings. The former Grand Hotel has been converted into apartments<ref>{{Cite news
| title = £8million restoration work begins on Grand Hotel
| newspaper = Plymouth Herald
| date = 16 March 2009
| url = http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/8million-restoration-work-begins-Grand-Hotel/article-773035-detail/article.html
| archive-url = https://archive.today/20130505152926/http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/8million-restoration-work-begins-Grand-Hotel/article-773035-detail/article.html
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 5 May 2013
| access-date = 4 May 2010
}}</ref> and the long derelict yacht club site has now been filled by a modern block of flats.

The [[Plymouth Dome]], a turreted and domed building, built into a small old quarry site above Tinside as an historical theme tourist attraction,<ref>{{Cite news
| title = Family Outings: Plymouth Dome
| newspaper = The Independent
| date = 5 December 2004
| url = https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/family-outings-plymouth-dome-678495.html
| access-date = 4 May 2010
| location=London
| first=Mark
| last=Rowe
}}</ref> failed to obtain sufficient funding and closed in 2006, despite having been visited by 2.3 million people. Between 2013 and 2016 it was a restaurant owned by [[celebrity chef]] [[Gary Rhodes]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/revealed-gary-rhodes-ends-involvement-rhodes-dome/story-28485619-detail/story.html |title=Gary Rhodes ends involvement with Rhodes @ The Dome as Plymouth restaurant re-brands |date=13 January 2016|first=Sam|last=Blackledge|work=Plymouth Herald|access-date=2017-06-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313144337/http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Revealed-Gary-Rhodes-ends-involvement-Rhodes-Dome/story-28485619-detail/story.html |archive-date=2016-03-13 }}</ref>
[[File:Plymouth Sound at evening light - geograph.org.uk - 89777.jpg|thumb|right|The view from the Hoe at sunset, showing [[Plymouth Sound]] and the [[Plymouth Breakwater|Breakwater]]]]

==Tombstoning==
In the early 21st century Plymouth Hoe became notorious for the practice of [[Cliff_jumping#Tombstoning|tombstoning]], which involves leaping feet-first into the sea from any accessible high point. This caused a number of serious injuries and deaths,<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10352694 | publisher=BBC News | title=Devon deaths warning over Plymouth Hoe tombstoning | date=18 June 2010}}</ref> leading to the dismantling of seafront diving boards and closure of parts of the waterfront to discourage the activity.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/8519857.stm | publisher=BBC News | title='Unsafe' diving platform removed | date=17 February 2010}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Hooe, Plymouth]], a small suburb of Plymstock located beside Hooe Lake.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090107021452/http://www.derektait.co.uk/plymouthhoe.html Old photos of Plymouth Hoe]
* [http://www.plymouthhoewaterfront.com Plymouth Hoe Guide and Event Portal]

{{Coord|50|21|52|N|4|8|32|W|type:landmark|display=title}}{{City of Plymouth}}

[[Category:Tourist attractions in Plymouth, Devon|Hoe]]
[[Category:Geography of Plymouth, Devon]]
[[Category:Parks and open spaces in Plymouth, Devon]]