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Plymouth town and local areas

Discussion in 'Plymouth' started by JAMES THE GILLS MAN, Dec 14, 2017.

  1. JAMES THE GILLS MAN

    JAMES THE GILLS MAN Active Member

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    Greetings and Merry Xmas guys and gals Gillingham fan here in peace.

    I currently live in France and have been for the last 3 bit years but i have decided that the time might have come for me to return to old Blighty, and Plymouth is one of a few options that i have thought of, I have never been there just wondering if you lot could let us know what's it like.

    have good one!!
     
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  2. notDistantGreen

    notDistantGreen Well-Known Member

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    Where to start...

    Great football club of course.
     
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  3. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    Hello JAMES and welcome to the Plymouth board. That is one big question to ask for a starter. Like anywhere Plymouth is in the eye of the beholder. One man's eutopia is another man's hell as they say.

    Plymouth itself as Cities go isn't a bad place to live. Some parts of it like any large City is a bit on the tired side and other parts are quite smart and reasonably decent to look at. Reasonable priced properties compared to other parts of the South West but not the cheapest in the Country either. One thing Plymouth does have going for it is the surrounding area. It is on the gateway to Cornwall which is truly a great part of the country. There is so much to see and places to go and walks etc around the area that you don't get in a lot of the rest of the land. It does depend on what you like to do in your spare time if you have any. Fishing is great. Walks are great. Beaches are great. Wild areas are great. They are all within a stones throw. There is one down side which is the success of the football team. But, if you have supported Gillingham then that may not be such a problem either.
     
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  4. JAMES THE GILLS MAN

    JAMES THE GILLS MAN Active Member

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    Thanks for the insight one thing is that i do not drive never had license is public transport OK?

    And I would live in the city, best and worst areas???

    As for for the best and worst of Gillingham

    avoid Gillingham
     
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  5. notDistantGreen

    notDistantGreen Well-Known Member

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    I'm not a Plymouthian although come from across the Tamar, having been coming to the city for shopping, entertainment and the football all my life. After years roaming around the UK, I have now been living in the city for 7 years - time flies.

    The things to remember about Plymouth are firstly, it's historically an industrial and military city and it was bombed very badly in WW2.

    The dockyard, although still a very important employer, has shrunk very considerably since it stopped building ships in the 1970's and lot of the old industries have gone the same way. Plymouth University is now huge with 23.000 students on various campuses around the south west and there's quite a sprawl of medical and scientific business around Derriford Hospital, but that's not quite the same as thousands of well paid skilled industrial jobs.

    I think I'm right in saying more bombs fell on Plymouth per sq mile or whatever than anywhere but Coventry. The historic city centre was almost totally destroyed in WW2 and was rebuilt after the war in a then modern Brutalist style. It's not pretty.

    A lot of the property in the core of the city is Victorian or Edwardian and quite a lot of it would originally have housed manual workers particularly close to the naval dockyard and port. There are areas to avoid. Some of the properties further north comprise Edwardian semis and terraces that would be worth a fortune in London. There are big price differentials between the best and worst areas. You could pay £1m+ for a flat on the Hoe or a house on Seymour Road down to 25% of that for very decent Edwardian house in the middle range. There's more modern housing out beyond the A38 around Derriford and Roborough: depends what you want.

    If you want to be close in (inside the A38 Parkway), in a good area with the most concentrated bus service, you'd be looking at Peverell, Mannamead, Compton and Hartley. Have I offended anyone? Stoke? Curates egg, so I've been told.

    Unlike Exeter, Plymouth doesn't have a John Lewis and it isn't getting an Ikea like Exeter either. Exeter has a Russell Group university whilst Plymouth University was a polytechic until 1992. Exeter has County Hall and the Met Office although Plymouth has the BBC. Plymouth does have am excellent football club and Exeter doesn't. Having lived in Exeter for 5 years or so, it is a nice, civilised city but Plymouth has a stronger identity and culture, a lot of it springing from its military and maritime history.

    The area from Sutton Harbour fishing quay and market around to the National Marine Aquarium, the Barbican, the Hoe and Millbay docks to the redeveloped Royal William Yard really is stupendous. It's just a shame the council haven't found away to link them together properly along the waterfront for walkers and cyclists. If they did, there wouldn't be city in the UK with anything like it

    I don't use buses but I can say there are hundreds of the bas***ds everywhere, each in their own pretty red bus lane so I assume it must be a great service. The airport is closed and will remain so, so if you want to fly it's Exeter, Newquay or Bristol at least. The railway service to London is also c**p, with long journey times, second rate trains and a piece of track beside the sea at Dawlish which has to close every time the wind gets above 10 mph.

    One thing you should be aware of is the high incidence of red/green colour blindness in Plymouth. Whether it's due to radioactive leakage from the submarines down at Devonport or excessive consumption of counterfeit Cornish pasties, I don't know. It means we all follow the Argyle but can't see the point in Exeter City. It must also explain the complete inability of drivers to tell the f**king difference between a red traffic light and a green one. I've lived in a few places and driven in London a bit but I've never seen anything like Plymouth. Crossing traffic lights here makes Russian Roulette look like a safe family game.
     
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  6. JAMES THE GILLS MAN

    JAMES THE GILLS MAN Active Member

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    Excellent reply i bid you many thanks, and in a way Plymouth's history is much like part of Gillingham/Chatham (sort of part of the Medway towns) as to when we had a Naval port in Chatham that closed down jobs went , hurt the area alot, as for beaches we do have a place called the strand on the Medway estuary if you look hard enough you can just see the rocky pebbles through the muddy water and shopping trolleys/ tyres, it looks like Plymouth is going to be my first choice as I know Portsmouth a little as I lived on the isle of Wight for a few years (not bad there but expensive).

    Many thanks for the info guys will keep a look out for your results and hope we both can see each other next season in this league

    Yes it crossed the line

    Happens!!!
     
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  7. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    Gillingham for me is an Argyle pub and match day out.....but generally a station on the way to Broadstairs.
     
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  8. lyndhurstgreen

    lyndhurstgreen Active Member

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    As a fellow outsider, I thought I would add my twopenneth. I moved here in 86 with the Royal Navy and have been a homeowner in the city ever since. One thing that you should know is that no matter how long you live here you will never be accepted as a local and will always be an incomer. Didn't bother me and I am just pleased that I have improved Devon's gene pool in a very small way. As a Peverell resident of 20 years I would agree that Peverell, Mannamead/Hartley are the best areas-esp if you don't drive. Low crime & decent housing -lots of large characterful Victorian/Edwardian terraces at 'reasonable' prices. For me it is a 15 mins walk into the centre of town; 60 secs walk to a huge open parkland, and 5 mins walk to Home Park (whats not to like?). Trains to London aren't as bad as suggested above, and actually the UNI, although an ex poly, is highly regarded for some subjects (Especially marine Sciences). A huge amount of money has been invested in the Uni which in turn has very much changed the architecture of the city.
    Wages are generally depressed compared with much of the rest of the country but this is slowly improving as the City becomes less reliant on the Royal Navy and diversifies into some highly specialist hi-tec businesses.

    Tin hat time, but Plymouthians are naturally apathetic and many are quick to blame everyone else rather than doing something about a particular problem. It is curious but 'incomers' tend to have a more positive view of the city and surrounding area than born and bred Janners. Stunning coastline & glorious moors within a few miles, and an outstanding football club make it an great place to live. Not as good as Yorkshire (and no decent cricket grounds) but no where is.
     
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  9. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    I was born in Devonport....my father was serving in the RAF at Mountbatten...so I have lived all over England until he had served 28 years and entered civvy street....we settled in NW Kent....and I have been here ever since...63 years....so I'm the opposite of lyndhurstgreen....although born within the sound of the dockyard I would say that I am not a janner and my association with the area is through my mother and her family who came from Princerock....20 minute stroll to the Barbican....my other connection is Argyle who I really took notice of when I was about ten (1949/50).....so that's 68 years of underperforming and now the biggest city never to have played in the top league.

    James.... as you know Kent has some beautiful scenery....and I can assure you the Devon/Cornwall coast near Plymouth is great....plus the ruggedness of Dartmoor not that far away.....I envy you that you feel able to move....my family is here in N W Kent...so I'm to old to uproot now.
     
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