Rebuilding Plymouth

Our Vision

Plymouth, a maritime city mentioned in the Doomsday book for having 4 villagers, 2 householders, one slave and 15 sheep. Thanks to the hard work of those 7 individuals we now have a modest 250,000, people not sheep! Although the city today looks very different to the one in 1940.

During World War II, Plymouth was devastated by the Blitz, suffering relentless bombing that destroyed much of its historic core. Entire neighborhoods, centuries-old buildings, and cultural landmarks were reduced to rubble. In the aftermath, the city made a choice to remove what survived and rebuild with the current ideals of architecture that were fashionable at the time. This would leave almost no trace of the original city today. So we are going to reconstruct the entire landscape pre 1940, every shop, every alley way, every building. We will populate it with characters and all the cultural industry, work houses, chapels, arcades and all the Inns and pubs. So people today can explore this landscape as an open world rebuilt as close as possible to the original. This landscape will be a canvas for collaborative game development, have any ideas? I kind of like the idea of a Monkey Island style game, absurd humour against the backdrop of real history. Beyond the Victorian landscape we can keep going back to the civil war, back to the Mayflower and its departure and even all the way back to to the roman port at Mount Batten. How they are all tied together can be a story written by those who follow and support us.

A perspective..

There’s something both humorous and oddly profound in the contradiction of all the different stories, from countless moments in time, that take place in the same location. In the very spot where you stand, someone might have once argued with their cat, raised a family, or experienced a tragedy. History is made up of layers of seemingly mundane moments, yet when viewed through this lens, they may seem absurd or even profound.

This strange layering of histories often fuels imagination. Often history is portrayed as ideal and romantic, we hope to add as much realism as possible. The poverty, dirt, and grime of those times will be present, too. Plymouth, for instance, was known for having some of the worst slums in England. It’s important to note that we are bringing elements from a broader period of time, not focusing on a single year. This approach allows us to capture a more complete picture, incorporating the incredible architecture that many of Plymouth’s buildings had before being lost to history, prior to 1939. This gives us a chance to rebuild not just structures, but the atmosphere, the lives, and the stories that filled them, offering a richer, more nuanced view of the past.

How

This is a huge challenge. The area we would like to cover is roughly 2 square miles. It has slowly grown over the years by collecting photos of Plymouth. Luckily, there are hundreds of these photos, and even better, we are fortunate to have aerial photographs taken in 1939. This enables us to slowly piece together each street from different angles. Using 3D modeling software, we build each building and include all the character we see — the shop frontages, the types of windows, the number of doors, the appearance of the rear of the buildings, the crooked chimneys, and the back courtyards.

For the first stage, it is primarily about research and roughly placing the correct buildings in the right locations. Once we have a significant portion of Plymouth rebuilt, we will return to each building to correct the scale, add details, and optimize it for computer performance, then bring the model into Unreal engine. Once it is there we can then decided how people would like to experience the city, whether it be a tram ride or a German bombing raid. We are open to anyone that may be able to write a great story using this landscape.

This is currently a passion project from two Plymouth natives. We are looking for funding so that we can commit full-time and deliver the project much quicker to our audience. Without funding it may take around another 6 years or more.

Hidden Corners

We will make small areas accessible for exploration and relaxation.

We hope to release a series of small areas of interest for desktop media. These will also be available at some point as VR relaxation scenes. They also may include a puzzle within each scene. These places include so far

Westwell garden, location is in middle of the plaza outside the Civic Center.
Spooners Roof Top Garden. Location is above the Boots store, Old Town Street
Smeatons Lighthouse in its original location on the Eddystone reef.
Charles Cross Church, the rebuilt interior of Charles Church ruins.
Exeter East Gate Arcade, we would also like to start rebuilding other Devon locations.