MUTLEY PLAIN

'Mutley Plain' is a street in Plymouth, Devon. The main street of Mutley, the term is often applied to the whole area despite the area being named "Mutley".Laid out as a broad tree lined mixed residential and retail avenue in the late nineteenth century, it was an up market resource for nearby affluent Mannamead but when the city centre was badly destroyed in the blitz, the 'Plain' quickly became the whole city's principal shopping street until the central area rebuilding was well under way in the late fifties. It still presents mainly as a shopping area, but now suffers from an acute lack of convenient parking and being turned into a busy and hazardous arterial dual carriageway (B3250). In recent years it has been transformed by the influx of students attending the ever expanding University of Plymouth. This is evidenced by the proliferation of inexpensive eateries, theme bars and taverns. The area is also home to many of Plymouth's estate agents.Adjoining Hyde Park Road with a couple of busy schools and a neat row of individual and more specialised shops helps to create a modest feel that Mutley may be retaining its function and status as an active inner suburban social hub.
Recently a community group named "Planet Mutley" has been formed by local residents concerned with the fast-paced changes that they are seeing. It seeks to address regeneration issues and tackle the growing number of licensed premises, which many local residents see as a problem. But there are counter-allegations of 'nimbyism' especially after a successful campaign to close a local authority children's homes at Thorn Park and efforts to do the same to a criminal resettlement hostel in Townsend Hill and the drug/alcohol treatment counselling unit in Ermington Terrace. Some say however that bustling Mutley and prosperous smart but laid back nearby Mannamead are in reality two of Plymouth's more relaxed and liberal communities less fraught than most others at the evident mixture of social classes, age groups, educational attainments and general diversity.
Mutley Plain still has a butcher's shop, bakeries, 2 video rental shops, very many charity shops, off licenses, two banks, a post office, a shoe shop, 2 betting shops, Ladbrokes and William Hills, a newsagent and Somerfield and Co-op supermarkets. One of the latest additions is a Lingerie/Sex Toys shop but a popular independent bookshop has recently closed down. Sadly longstanding and very useful ironmongers, a grand furniture store, Gieves and Hawkes gentlemens' outfitters, and a first rate fishmonger all closed in the 70s and 80s. The Conservative Club survives.
Mutley Plain is home to numerous student bars/pubs, such as the Boomerang Bar, the Mutley Crown, Café Sol, JD Wetherspoons' Mannamead, Goodbody's and the more conventional pubs including the Fortescue Hotel, the Junction and the Hyde Park Hotel which is perched in the middle of a small traffic island. Ominously the noisy evening streetscape now features numerous and flourescent patrolling constables and community support officers. And beware, the 'Plain' is one of Plymouth's notorious 'designated areas' where you risk having glasses bottles and cans seized and your being arrested if you dare venture outside in possession of alcohol.
There is a thriving and evangelical baptist church which is prized as one of the few remaining architectural features.The methodists demolished and redeveloped their site two decades ago.The quakers are activewith their meeting room, outreach and adult education centre at the Swarthmore. The Belgrave cinema metamorphosed into a pool hall 20 years ago..

Contents

History

Railway

References

History

Mutley Plain lies on the route of an ancient road linking Bilburgh, a Bronze Age settlement on the coast at Sutton Pool which later formed the nucleus of the city of Plymouth, to the north. Mutley was originally the name of two parishes to the west of this road in the valley of the Houndiscombe Brook, the land to the east being part of the parish of Lipson.^[1]
Before the Norman invasion in 1066, Higher Mutley was held by Alwin of Tamerton, and Lower Mutley by one Goodwin, but at the time of the Domesday Book (1086) both were held by Odo, from Judhel of Totnes. In the Domesday Book the two parishes were said to be worth five shillings each. Lower Mutley had two farms while Higher Mutley consisted of ten sheep, one farm and two smallholdings.

Railway

A tunnel was driven beneath Mutley Plain by the South Devon Railway Company and was opened to traffic on 2 April 1849. Formerly this was the site of Mutley Station, opened 1 August 1871 and known as the 'Station of the Gentry'.^[2] It was closed 2 March 1939, and has since been replaced by a car park above the railway line.

References

1. Gill, Crispin (1993). Plymouth: A New History. Devon Books
2. Mutley Station