Varsity

The impact of the University on the city of Plymouth has been significant in a great variety of ways – in terms of housing, employment, development and, quite conspicuously, in terms the number of inner city drinking establishments. All along Mutley Plain and North Hill there has been a steady rise in pub numbers as one by one existing buildings have been gutted, refashioned and fitted out as licensed premises. The same process has been much in evidence in the eastern end of Union Street, although here there has also been a number of pubs opening in new buildings – Walkabout and Bongogos on the site of the old Drake cinema, and La Tasca and the Varsity on the site of the post-war garage that stood below the erstwhile Derry’s Cross car park. Cast very much in the mould of the modern pub the Varsity, is typically large, loud and lively.