This film is part of Free

Plymouth Hoe Promenading

Iconic area of Plymouth Hoe is the focus for city's entertainment

Non-Fiction 1940 2 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for South West Film and Television Archive

Overview

This amateur film of the Hoe shows dancing on the open public space, the Bandstand, the waterfront and the Art Deco Tinside Lido, an open air seawater pool opened in 1935. Set above limestone cliffs overlooking Plymouth Sound and Drake's Island and the Hamoaze to Mount Edgcumbe in Cornwall, the Hoe is traditionally a place for promenades, community gatherings and military processions.

Smeaton's Tower is the Eddystone Lighthouse of 1759, dismantled and rebuilt on the Hoe in 1877. The Bandstand dates from 1880 but was removed for scrap metal during the Second World War and never rebuilt. The filmmakers are Edward Stanley Leatherby (1884-1948) Mayor of Plymouth 1933-1934 and his brother, Frank Leatherby who became Lord Mayor in 1949. Edward Leatherby's successor James Pillar became the first Lord Mayor of Plymouth after Leatherby requested the grander title in a meeting with King George V. The upgrade coincided with the King's Silver Jubilee of 1935. The Leatherbys filmed many civic events and are responsible for the only filming of the City of Plymouth during the Second World War.