Childhood Memories in Plymouth

by Alan Cole · Published Thursday, August 4th, 2011 · Updated Monday, August 1st, 2011

Morgan on Plymouth Hoe

Everyone knows that my memory for past events isn’t great and when family conversations turn to things we used to do I seem to have lived in a separate world to everyone else, never quite being able to remember anything that we did.

I do however remember family holidays to Plymouth and more importantly some of the places we visited. In fact I have a really good memory for the layout of places and how to get from place to place so we had no problems last week on our camping holiday when I tried to show Anna and Morgan what we used to do as children visiting Plymouth.

The drive from our campsite was easy and we managed to park right next to the West Hoe Playpark, a place that we used to visit without fail when here as children. Morgan had a quick play in the park before we walked along the Hoe and up to Smeatons Tower. It was a gorgeous day and the views out across Plymouth Sound to Drakes Island and the breakwater were lovely, with calm waters and blue skies.

Plymouth Big Wheel

Smeatons Tower

Tinside Lido

Very little had changed along the Hoe, some bits of it had been smartened up a bit, others hadn’t. We didn’t go up the lighthouse though as there was a Big Wheel (London Eye style) next to it, so Morgan and I took the opportunity to have a ride on it. Anna declined as it looked too high for her.

Next we headed to the Tinside Lido, the open air swimming pool on the Hoe. Last time I saw this is was closed and before that it had been falling into disrepair, but it has been renovated and restored to its original glory, it is free to get in and it looks great. The water was of course pretty chilly, and quite why most open air swimming pools are right next to the sea (exactly where you don’t need them) I’ll never know. Morgan enjoyed it as he had been wanting to go in it for weeks prior to our holiday.

We then wandered down into the Barbican for lunch and a little potter around the shops and galleries, before heading back to the park where Morgan had a go at water zorbing, rode on the go-karts and played a round of crazy golf.