Under the Pavement: Local Secrets, Honest Stories & the Real Plymouth
Everything in this city is on top of something.
When they dug up Armada Way they found Drake's Leat under the pavement, four hundred years old and still there. Under that, three metres of Blitz rubble. Under that, the shillet. My neighbour Maureen, who is 79 and was born in an Ernesettle prefab while they were still clearing the town, says that's Plymouth in one sentence. Nothing here gets thrown away. It gets built on.
I was born at Freedom Fields in 1982 and left at nine when Dad got posted, and I came home four years ago with a sanded-off accent and no idea where anything was to. This book is the notebook I kept while Maureen put me right. It's the Plymouth you only get from someone who's been here since the rubble, written down by someone who had to relearn it.
What's in it
The city under the city. The Blitz told properly, from a woman whose mum walked through the middle of it in 1941. Why the centre is a concrete grid with the sea at the end of the street, and why that was the whole point. Charles Church, the Barbican that survived, Devonport that didn't, and why people from Stoke and Keyham still talk about it differently to people from Mannamead.
Armada Way, start to finish. The night of 14 March 2023, the injunction at three minutes to one, the 110 trees, the review, and the summer it finally reopened with a pirate galleon on it. What's actually there now, what's still to come, and which bench Maureen sits on.
The Hoe and the Sound, done properly. Where to stand when the Sound is throwing a strop. The bit of the Hoe the wedding photographers don't know about. Smeaton's Tower, Drake's Island, the breakwater, the warships, and how to tell what's coming in before it comes in. Tinside in season and Tinside out of season, which is better.
The Barbican beyond the postcard. Why the Mayflower Steps aren't where the Mayflower left from, and where the plaque actually is. Jacka's, Cap'n Jaspers etiquette, the Black Friars gin distillery, the fish market at dawn, and the streets Maureen won't walk down in August because of the coach parties.
The best view of Plymouth is in Cornwall. The ferry, the eleven-minute walk, the exact bench, with directions. Plus Devil's Point, Jennycliff, Wembury and the honest state of Mount Batten right now.
Guzz. What it means, why nobody in the Navy calls it Plymouth, and how to talk to a city where half the families have been posted away and come back. The hooter, the dockyard, and what the money coming into Devonport actually means for the streets around it.
Where a Janner would actually live. An honest area-by-area guide for anyone moving here for the dockyard work or coming home. Stoke, Peverell, Mutley, Plymstock, Plympton, Efford, Ernesettle, St Judes, the Hoe flats, the Royal William Yard, and the places estate agents call up-and-coming that Maureen calls something else. Rents, buses, which bits to avoid after dark and which bits only look like you should.
The arguments. Which pasty (I've picked one, and she disagrees). Which chippy. What you got from Dingles. Who counts as a Janner. A glossary of where's it to, dreckly, maid, ansum and geddon so you don't get caught out.
Cheat sheets at the back. A year in Plymouth month by month, a free-day itinerary, a wet-day itinerary, the ferries and buses that are worth knowing, and a rough-weather plan.
How it works
It's an ebook. You get the download link the moment you pay, it opens on your phone, tablet or laptop, and there's nothing to post. Every time I update it, and I will, because this city won't sit still, you get the new version for nothing. Buy it once, keep it forever.
Who this is for
Janners who were born here and want it told right. People who were posted away and miss it more than they let on. Anyone moving here for the dockyard money who wants the truth before the estate agent's version. And anyone who has ever stood at the top of Armada Way, looked down at the sea sat at the end of the street, and felt something they couldn't quite explain.
Maureen says it's not the same. It's not meant to be. We've had this town flattened before.
Download it now, free updates for life
Instant download. Any device. Written under the pen name Natalie Monroe.