Plymouth

The historic city of Plymouth, inextricably linked with the sea and the Royal Navy, sits between the mouths of two rivers; the Plym and the Tamar, on the south coast of Britain.

It's place in history cannot be overestimated; in Elizabethan times Sir Francis Drake famously played bowls on Plymouth Hoe as he waited for the Spanish Armada, and during the English Civil War Plymouth was the only Roundhead stronghold to successfully hold out against the King. The Royal Citadel on the Hoe has been in continuous military occupation since the late 1660s, while the huge Royal Dockyard, built in the late 17th Century, has been a major employer in the city ever since.

Sir Francis Drake started and finished his historic circumnavigation of the world in Plymouth Sound; as well as being a major property owner in the area he also pioneered the first municipal water supply in the country. The Pilgrim Fathers eventually set out for the New World from Plymouth on The Mayflower, settling what would later become the United States of America. Captain James Cook sailed from Plymouth on each of his three voyages of discovery, as did Charles Darwin on the Beagle and, of course, the first person to solo circumnavigate the globe - Sir Francis Chichester.

Much of this historic city was destroyed in World War II, when Plymouth suffered proportionally as much damage as any city in Britain and pro-rata as many civilian casualties as London. Unsympathetic rebuilding gave rise to most of the city's high-rise buildings, which remain small in number in what is essentially a low-rise port.