PLYMOUTH’S OVER 100 AMAZING FACTS SECOND EDITION Welcome to the second edition of the Plymouth Book of Wonder, where we have found even more quirky and fascinating facts about our amazing waterfront city, as well as refreshing some of our original ones. The book continues to give you a flavour of what makes Plymouth the vibrant, creative and exciting ocean city that it is today. Plymouth is an ambitious city with huge growth potential and is undergoing exciting changes, with many more on the horizon. We have already seen the transformation of Millbay and Royal William Yard, now a cultural hotspot for restaurants, art galleries and events. It’s this creativity and vibrancy, along with our spectacular waterfront location and rich heritage that provides such a fantastic quality of life, making Plymouth, Britain’s Ocean City the perfect location to live, work and invest. To find out more about business opportunities in Plymouth, contact the Enterprise and Inward Investment team on: T +44 1752 307360 E [email protected] W investinplymouth.co.uk @investplymouth We gratefully acknowledge the support from all the businesses and organisations that have helped us by providing images and information for this guide, with special thanks to the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery and Corporate Communications Department. Every care has been taken to ensure the information contained in this publication is correct at time of printing; however Plymouth City Council cannot be held responsible for any errors, omissions or actions being taken on reliance on it. If you climb the 93 steps to the top of Smeaton’s Tower on a clear day you can still see the original base of the lighthouse standing on the notorious Eddystone Reef 03 Plymouth is the best place to live in the country in terms of good schools, clean air, value and quality of housing and access to sparkling sea...‘The Guardian’ 2013 04 Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust is the largest teaching hospital trust in the South West and receives one million people a year through its doors In 2014, 5,000 patients took part in research across 591 studies 05 Great Scott! Plymouth-born ‘Scott of the Antarctic’ led the first-ever British expedition to reach the South Pole in 1912 Photo from Plymouth City Council (Arts and Heritage) 06 Anyone for tea? Plymouth Tea, a local tea merchant, has recently opened Devon’s first tea plantation, growing on the banks of the river Tavy. This is only the second in England 07 Recent Nesta research showed that Plymouth ranked 8th highest in the country on the proportion of businesses classed as ‘high-growth’, alongside the likes of Oxford and Cambridge Photo from Trevor Burrows 08 Mount Batten Tower, built in circa 1650, is an imposing gun tower guarding the southern approach to Plymouth’s harbour. Named after a commander in Cromwell’s Parliamentarian navy, it is lit up at night as part of a scheme to illuminate some of Plymouth’s most treasured monuments Photo from LITE LTD 09 Mum’s the word! Nancy Astor was a pioneer of day nurseries for working mums. In the early 1900s she funded a series of buildings, some of which were named after her own children Photo from Plymouth City Council (Arts and Heritage) 10 Some of the Pilgrim Fathers are said to have spent their last night in England at Plymouth’s Black Friars building on the Barbican where Plymouth Gin is located today 11 Man Overboard! John Howland fell overboard the Mayflower during a storm and was almost lost at sea but managed to grab the topsail halyards, giving the crew enough time to rescue him with a boat hook. His descendants include Franklin D Roosevelt, George H W Bush, George W Bush, the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson and Humphrey Bogart 12 Original painting by Mike Haywood Plymouth Science Park is the region’s largest science and technology park with over 140,000 sq ft of office and laboratory space It is host to over 80 businesses in the life sciences, digital, technology and e-commerce sectors 13 Plympton-born 18th century portrait artist Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was the founding President of the Royal Academy, Painter to the King, a published author, art collector and Knight of the Realm Photo from: Plymouth City Council (Arts and Heritage) 14 Theatre Royal Plymouth’s Production and Learning Centre produced the outstanding cascade for the Tower of London’s Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red installation which marked the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War Photo from: Plymouth City Council (Arts and Heritage) 15 Rolex Fastnet Race Photo from Paul Wyeth Finishing line for Fastnet Plymouth has been the finishing point for the Rolex Fastnet Race since it began in 1925 This historic race celebrated its 90th birthday in 2015 16 Captain James Cook (1728-1779) set sail from Plymouth on each of his three famous voyages in the late 1700s 17 Royal William Yard is home to the largest collection of Grade I Listed naval buildings in the UK 18 Plymouth’s Ocean Studios has transformed the Old Cooperage at Royal William Yard to new workspace for more than 40 artists, designers and craftspeople as well as exhibition space, which has featured work by the likes of Gillian Wearing, Mary Kelly and Grayson Perry Photos from Dom Moore 19 Anyone for tennis? Two years before they tasted Davis Cup success in 1933, the Great British team played their first round match in Plymouth. Their players included the multi-Grand Slam winner Fred Perry (top row, seven from the left) Photo from Plymouth City Council (Arts and Heritage) 20 Mine’s a pint When the Tolpuddle Martyrs returned to England from Australia they landed at Sutton Harbour and stayed in one of the oldest pubs in Plymouth, The Dolphin Inn pic to come 21 Opened in 1859, the Royal Albert Bridge designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is regarded as an engineering marvel 22 Originally designed by the iconic Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Plymouth’s historic Millbay Docks are being transformed into a vibrant new coastal quarter 23 Fine Tubes develops and manufactures precision metal tubing for the most demanding environments around the globe. Some of the high specification tubes made in Plymouth can have a wall thickness of less than the thickness of a human hair. Oil & Gas Energy Aerospace Medical 24 Fine Tubes develops and manufactures precision metal tubing for the most demanding environments around the globe. Some of the high specification tubes made in Plymouth can have a wall thickness of less than the thickness of a human hair. Whether you are using social media, online shopping, cloud computing, creating innovative 3D designs or just searching the internet, the world’s most sophisticated systems that drive the UK’s vital IT economy Oil & Gas Energy Aerospace Medical are housed in IT enclosures manufactured by Plymouth- based Rittal-CSM Ltd Photo from Rittal-CSM Ltd 25 Edward Stanley Gibbons, English stamp dealer and founder of Stanley Gibbons Ltd, publishers of the famous Stanley Gibbons stamp catalogue was born in 1840 in Plymouth. This was the same year that the Penny Black stamp was launched 26 With 5.5 million visitors coming to the city, the tourism sector is worth £337 million per annum. Approximately seven per cent of the city’s employment is tourism related, providing over 8,000 jobs (Cambridge Model 2012) 27 Plymouth based Twofour was named the biggest supplier of popular factual television in the UK in 2015 The Hotel Inspector is the longest running series on Channel 5 and has aired in over 100 countries Filming Twofour’s hit Channel 4 series, Royal Marines Commando School, was like a military operation. Shot in Lympstone in Devon, it involved over 50 cameras, 30 radio microphones and 20 kilometres of cabling Photo from Dean Nixon 28 ‘Best in South West for Education and Teacher Training’, Complete University Guide The University of St Mark & St John is ranked first for social mobility, supporting individuals to make a positive impact in the 21st century, with 94 per cent of graduates in employment or further study Its world-class facilities are used by elite athletes including a team base for the Rugby World Cup 2015 Photo from the University of St Mark & St John 29 Britain’s earliest pasty recipe dates back to 1510, discovered hidden within one of the Plymouth Borough account books 30 Plymouth was one of the first places in the UK to have a lifeboat, with the first stationed here in 1803. The RNLI was set up in 1824 and formally took over running the Plymouth lifeboat station the following year Photo from Phil Monckton 31 Fruity facts! Plymouth is home to two rare fruits bearing the city’s name. Kew Gardens has been involved in the conservation of the Plymouth Pear tree since 1879 and the spiny Plymouth Strawberry has a ‘wacky’ appearance Photo from Aphotoflora.com 32 pic to come Plymouth Marine Laboratory was ranked the top UK organisation for climate economics and policy in the ‘2014 International Centre for Climate Governance Climate Think Tank Ranking’; an analysis created to recognise the excellence of the main institutions addressing climate issues worldwide Photo from Anna Silyakova 33 Plymouth has the highest number of post-war listed buildings outside London and is a unique example of a 20th century city Photo from Plymouth City Council (Arts and Heritage) 34 Plymouth boasts a Grade II Listed facility considered one of the finest examples of the 1930s lido architecture in the country.