Description
If you thought the post-war rebuilding of Plymouth ended in the Sixties, think again: the Seventies was the decade that brought us a new Drake Circus shopping complex, two massive new hotels and three major new academic institutions.
With the construction of the purpose-built College of Art and Design, College of Further Education, College of St Mark and St John, and the conferring of Polytechnic status on the former Technical School, Plymouth’s reputation as a significant seat of learning was sealed.
Plymouth In The Seventies also chronicles the closure of various freight train routes in and out of the City, the demise of Millbay and Sutton Harbour as working ports and their subsequent reinvention as leisure/pleasure waterfront residential areas, as well as significant developments in the dockyard, notably the Frigate Complex and Submarine Refit Base.
It was the golden era of the Van Dike Club, Woods and Fiesta. We said goodbye Plymouth Zoo, Plymouth Argyle said farewell – and hello again – to Third Division Football.
Robert Lenkiewicz painted his large mural on the Barbican, while Beryl Cook painted large ladies all round town. It was the era of hot pants, flares, big hair and punk: we celebrated Mayflower ’70 and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.
Plymouth Sound took to the air, the first Brittany Ferry arrived in Millbay and the Tour de France left mainland Europe for the first time – and the race started here.
