The first day at Admiralty House, Devonport

Tue, 25 Mar 2008

On March 4, 2008 I was handed the key to Admiralty House. Not the key to the front door, but the key to a self-contained 18th century two bedroom cottage in the east wing. This will be my temporary part-time residence until sometime in late summer. My living room window looks south across the grand lawn to cliff edge and water. I can watch Navy ships, boats and the Stena ferry to Spain sail past in the Hamoaze, England’s historic maritime and naval estuary and entrance to Devonport Dockyard. Cornwall and the Rame peninsula are off to the right, and straight ahead England’s largest breakwater and lighthouse mark the point where Hamoaze meets Plymouth Sound. To say I am lucky is an understatement.

On a strategic and commanding headland on the south west coast of England, Admiralty House was built in 1789 for the Governor of Plymouth. Its near neighbour, the similar vintage Hamoaze House, was built for the Admirals of Devonport. In 1934 the occupants swapped houses. Government House became Admiralty House, and the Navy and Ministry of Defense its guardian.

Beneath the house is a massive two-storey underground bunker system. Naval HQ from World War II to the Falklands conflict, it runs the length and breadth of the great lawn and ends at the limestone cliff that forms a natural barrier between the land and sea. Richmond Walk is directly below and Blagdon’s boatyard beyond.

Devonport could rest on its Naval laurels and the serendipity of its location, but it offers more. It is the port where Charles Darwin sailed on the Beagle. It is where the Pasley girls, daughters of Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley Bt created one of the great but virtually unknown 19^thcentury English amateur natural history watercolour albums. It is where the brilliant architect John Foulston designed still extant buildings such as the Guildhall. It is an area of outstanding marine science and innovation. It is where ambitious and bold changes to the public realm will be made in the next decade. Devonport is a sleeping beauty in possession of one of the most envious locations in the UK.