Boom time for Plymouth in the Eighties

FOLLOWING on from last week's look at Plymouth in the 1980s, and mindful of Argyle’s current plight, it is worth noting that in that decade the footfall at Home Park fell to its lowest level since the club had joined the league in the 1920s, with the average attendance per season dropping below 5,000 twice and only reaching five figures twice following their promotion under Dave Smith in 1986.

- 

There was still plenty of appetite for getting out and about, however, and the live music scene was thriving in places like The Good Companions, The Breakwater, The Swan, Barbican Wine Lodge, The Ark Royal and The Old Chapel.

The club scene was also lively with Castaways, Cascade, Fiesta, Monroes, Mr Harry’s, Ronnie's, Sam's, Snobs, Tops and Tramps among those doing good business when the eighties opened.

It was something of a boom time for theatre-goers too, as the draughty single-storey and somewhat inadequate Hoe Theatre was superseded by what was widely regarded as the finest postwar regional theatre in England - the Theatre Royal - which, for a year or so, faced stiff competition from the Palace Theatre in Union Street.