The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
This film is part of Free
Looking Back - Plymouth Hoe, where you can hear the band and see 'The Sound'
A look at Plymouth in the 1930s: the forgotten gems
In partnership with:
Overview
Rare footage of Plymouth in the 1930s, including scenes of Plymouth Hoe, the Bandstand, the Sound and the Promenade Pier. Plymouth gained city status in 1928 when the amalgamation of the three boroughs of Devonport, Stonehouse and Sutton became Plymouth. The city is well-known for its Naval Base. The city was destroyed by bombing raids in the Second World War and the city centre was rebuilt in the post-modernist style of Abercrombie.
The pier designed by Eugenius Birch in 1875 and completed in 1883 provided Plymouth Hoe with a dance hall, refreshments and a place for steam boats to dock. In 1934 the Grand or Promendade Pier came to a financial end and bombed in March 1941, the War Damage Commission paid £4,754 and finally the pier was demolished in 1953. The bandstand was built in 1880 only to be removed for scrap metal during the Second World War and never rebuilt. Plymouth Sound is a natural bay fresh water flows in from two rivers the Plym and Tamar, the marine entrance is from the English Channel, this provides entrance to RN military vessels, fishing vessels and civilian boats.
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