Plymouth's Rise from the Ashes - Full video

The effect of the 2nd World War left Plymouth’s city center in ashes, but 1947 saw the beginning of the reconstruction in earnest. As the workmen moved in, Cyril Miller, a Plymouth amateur cinematographer, was there to record for future generations the gradual rebuilding of the main city center.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:01 War breaks out
7:20 Remains of the war
12:58 Rebuilding starts
24:54 Getting to and from Plymouth
28:27 Plymouth today
30:39 Other areas of Plymouth
45:52 Then and now
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[@elliotbaker3757]

Appreciate the time to make this video. It'll be watched for hundreds of years

[@DavidDavid-kl4ru]

Lovely documentary. I grew up in Plymouth and learned about Professor Abercrombie's regeneration plan at school. My grandfather worked in the dockyard and was an air raid warden during the war. My dad joined up in 1940 and when he returned on leave during the blitz he couldn't find his way home to Stonehouse because the devastation had rendered the City unrecognisable. This has helped me realise what those men went through.

[@eeeandeee]

I grew up in Plymouth in the 70's and 80's (buying models in Lawsons toy shop, Saturday job in BHS ) All that work, all that effort, all that foresight to make Plymouth a showpiece. Plymouth was clean and vibrant, then they pedestrianised the city centre, and bit by bit, Plymouth aged. When I went there for Christmas last year (2023) I was saddened by how grubby and tired the place was 😞

[@BevMattocks]

Fascinating! My late grandad used to work with Abercrombie, although not on the Plymouth rebuild

[@nectafarious8842]

Looking at some of the beautiful buildings that could have been preserved with a sympathetic redevelopment, it's a crying shame what Janners have to live with today. The bland, soulless concrete box mentality that cursed the rebuild is still evident everywhere, despite the latest iteration of Drake's Circus.

[@daydays12]

I so agree! It would have been so much better to do a reconstruction à la Warsaw.( try to save as much of the old as possible, and rebuild from plans of what was there before). I was surprised , watching this video at how many old buildings survived and were demolished to allow Abercombie's horrible plan to go forward. Abercrombie et al should be consigned to ****** I remember the wind tunnel that was Royal Parade. Is it still as awful in Autumn/Winter/Spring....Oh that hateful obsession with the motor car... later made much worse by corrupt Marples and his millions made from motorways. More than a hundred mature trees cut down in Armada Way recently I hear...

[@philiprufus4427]

My late father was from Devonport and went to Devonport High. The Navy got hold of him in 1941 and he spent three years on East Coast convoys and Operation Torch, He swapped Luftwafffe Bombs at home for Torpedoes and bombs at sea.( 'What was The Navy like dad ? Hard unpleasant work,boring,total terror and sometimes,just sometimes pleasant like when I saw The West Coast of Scotland in fine weather or The Med. HRH then Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten was H M S Wallaces 'Jimmy the One' for a while,by all accounts my late fathers included, a good Naval Officer. Dad used to chuckle every time HRH came out with a gaff. "He was the same during the war, raging at errant boats from the bridge for getting in the way. Not Smart to inconvenience one of His Majesties Destroyers returning from a conflict. I regard myself as being a lucky laddie having been all over Scotland and England I had two English Grandfathers (Yorkshire and Devon) a Scottish Grandmother and a Cornish oneThe family finished up in Scotland. It was twenty five years after the war,that my late father returned to Plymouth with the family for a look. His folks had gone to Shoram in 1942 and many of his schoolchums had died in the war.@@daydays12

[@philiprufus4427]

Can't say I disagree ! Having visted my late fathers home city in 1965 yet something hadt be done,The Luftwaffe made a thorough job of the place.

[@daydays12]

Thank you so much for that. My father was in the Royal Navy and my mother in the WRNS during the war often based at Devonport. My father was on Atlantic convoys etc...He never spoke about the war but had some photo albums which I shouldn't have looked as a little boy .... and saw photos of ships going down and horrors like that. He also had lots of books so I guess he spent the boring times reading between the moments of sheer terror. I think he had some good times too but never spoke about them either. @@philiprufus4427

[@ADMIRALSCORNER]

I really enjoyed this. Many thanks.

[@AarchiveRailways]

You are most welcome and thank you for the comments.

[@johnwalkley6746]

If you look at Plymouth today you wonder why they bothered.or perhaps they weren’t!

[@AarchiveRailways]

I haven't been home for a while and it was sad to see so many buildings covered with scaffolding everywhere. I hope they are making improvements, but at the moment, it's just an empty shell.

[@daydays12]

I agree.....commented on this above...

[@philiprufus4427]

Spoken like a milleniium kid,with no experience of War 11. Maybe the wartime generation had a different agenda,due to their experience.

[@neilhilton35]

I don't think the fabric of the modern buildings have stood the test of time. The once bright and colourful City centre is looking drab and in need of attention. The Civic Centre, once an iconic building is decaying rapidly. I do hope it can all be restored and bring Plymouth back to life 🙏

[@JoeLivingstone-fk7bp]

Thanks!

[@AarchiveRailways]

Thank you Joe, much appreciated.

[@AdrianTrace]

Excellent Film. I did spot an error, in the end sequence is a shot of traffic heading east up Royal Parade which is overlaid with a view of modern day St Andrews Cross roundabout looking north toward Old Town Street.

[@AarchiveRailways]

I went over the original video and I had a suspicion it was wrong. I'm going to leave it, as a testament for my dad getting things wrong every now and then. He would appreciate the joke. 🙂

[@trainrover]

mass unemployment of the Twenties? how come this is the first I'm hearing this about them wurzels..?

[@AarchiveRailways]

It was dad that did all the research about it. He was the historian.

[@trainrover]

history so mind-blowingly vast around the BI there coupled to that customary stoicism of yore, I suppose..! post-WW2 re-/development is often the creepiest around too -- I recognise Plymouth's own share of, e,g., Sheffield :(

[@trainrover]

selections of boogie woogie accompaniments here *really* irritating

[@AarchiveRailways]

We were, unfortunately, very limited on what music we can use.

[@RockDove5212]

I dint think so. I think it added to it. Excellent film.

[@trainrover]

you needn't feel poorly, the art of accompaniment has been forever deficient; weaving in corporate nuance is too often its crutch, e.g.

[@daydays12]

Very interesting, but sad, film. Thank you ... but...such a wasted opportunity. "They" could have created something beautiful Alas! The motor car/grid pattern /concrete mania of Abercrombie and his ilk is so horrible I despair.... Plymouth deserved something better. I guess millions were made by the concrete people ....The destruction continues...more than q hundred mature trees cut down in Armada Way.😞 Shameful.

[@grahambyrne7868]

Royal parade the flagship practically closed now,but for illegals living in the upper floors of a once great idea 😢