A tour of Plymouth, which was blitzed by the German airforce during the war. We compare the pictures of the city to those from before war in the books on the local history stand at Waterstones. In Germany, they would have rebuilt the city brick by brick, W. observes. That’s what happened in Freiburg. Not here, though.
W. admires modern Plymouth, with its elegant lines and wide streets. We read about Abercrombie’s Plan for Plymouth, published during the war, which saw the city organised in long boulevards, transected by the avenue that runs from the station to the Hoe. The building that houses Watertones was one of the few to survive the Luftwaffe, W. says. It was the quarters for the Plymouth Herald, and journalists went out onto the roof to kick the incendiaries away. Later I take a picture of him pointing to Waterstones, and we go on a ‘pointing tour’ of the buildings that survived the war in the city.
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